Could this be a form of Tourette’s?

[sharkattacka]

Dd (7) does something continuously for a few weeks and then she’ll do something else, each time it’s completely compulsive and every few minutes.
it could be a scream, a word, a movement or just opening her mouth and shutting it or touching the floor every few steps.
At the moment it’s a very high pitched noice which goes right through me and even though I tell her to stop that, she doesn’t seem to know until after but the strange part is the way she’ll repeat it for weeks and then suddenly start a new compulsive repetitive motion.
She’s always done this.
Does this sound like Tourette’s?

I go GP for this one.
I cant say it is or its not i really dont know.

Could also be a form of stimming.

Not necessarily, but I'd definitely get her an appointment at the doctors as you're concerned. Has her school, form teacher, or a friend's mum noticed this?

I did think it was stimming but she says she can’t stop it and she does it all day every day. I read stimming can be controlled but she says she can’t make it stop.

Nobody else has mentioned it but she tells me she does it at school every few minutes and gets embarrassed by it.

Db stims and has no control over it and I know a few others who are the same. Hope you figure it out op, so much is finding the right specialist/ gp/ person!

Thank you, it’s always been there in the background but I’ve noticed over the holidays spending more time with her just how frequently she does this and it really is every minute of the day.

My autistic daughter gets uncontrollable physical twitches sometimes. Maybe that’s something other than stimming and I’ve just put the two together without really thinking about it.

Then I'd definitely get her checked out and speak to her new teacher when school starts again.

It sounds like stimming, maybe echolalia for the noisy ones. I had "tics" as a child. I still stim, but there are ones that are more like tics because I cant help but do them. Have you ever thought of any kind of neurodiversity?

We are in the process of trying to get a diagnosis for ADHD and ODD but it’s early days and we haven’t had an assessment yet.

Tic
www.nhs.uk/conditions/tics/

I'd say tics too. My friend's autistic son does a kind of crouching thing every few strides when he's stressed which they were told was a tic.

Yes, sounds like tics. My 15 year old daughter has had them since about 8/9. She’ll have the same - one for a few months then it might get replaced. Used to be facial movements but now a vocal one (sort of throat clearing noise). She does it more if she is tired and/or stressed.

I’ve got three kids, one with Tourette’s and two with tics.
7 is a common age for tics to start.

it certainly sounds like tics.

Whether it sticks around and can officially be ruled as Tourette’s only time will tell.

It will all be ok, I promise. My oldest with Tourette’s is nearly 19 now and tics but he’s thriving.

I have a son who has multiple dx with Tourette’s being one of them. I also have a granddaughter who has what I call a vocal tic, she sounds much like your DD. She’s also dyslexic and more than likely has ADHD also. Then there are others with their DX. It would be accurate to say we’re a ND family and despite my exposure to a whole range of ND I still can’t work out if my DGD has Tourette’s or not but at this stage my instinct is telling me no. But who knows what I may think a year from now. Op, try to record your daughter without her knowing you’re doing it and see your GP. You should also ask for the SEN team/SALT therapist at school to be involved also from now.

Does sound like tics, I developed them at the age of 25 and I agree with your dd I find it embarrassing out in public and they can't be controlled, if i tried to stop them it would cause me pain and make it worse. Deffo agree with other posters that I'd contact the gp xx

My daughter is 8 and does the exact same. A new tic develops for a few months then just stops one day and gets replaced with another just as quick. Hers go from being physical or facial/eye expressions to sounds. Current one is making a faint grunt in her throat. She had one once where she would sniff her fingers constantly especially after she’d touched something, we both laughed our heads off when she got caught in a school trip photo doing it! 😂😂 I’ve tried making her aware of it all but she can’t stop so we just have a laugh about it now

I taught a student in 6th form with this issue. They took up a new sport and trained for it a lot. This helped them manage the tics.

There's definitely a mind-body connection.

My ds is 12 and we have an appointment in the morning for very similar traits.
Obviously it doesn't diagnose your child but I can at least let you know what they say so you have an idea of what it could be.

I went to the GP and asked for a referral. It falls under the urgent pathway as it is very likely neurological so we were given an appt within 4 weeks.

That is really interesting. I am no expert on this subject, but I've known a handful people with tics/tourettes and it seemed to disappear when they did certain things, like singing, playing an instrument, or riding a bike. I wonder if maybe tics can be controlled when the person is engaging a particular part of the brain with a complex task? It's not going to make them go away of course, but it could be empowering for someone to find a thing that controls their need to stimm/tic.

Sounds like tics but not all tics are Tourette’s. Tic disorders live under the umbrella of ND.

There is a really link between Tourette’s and ADHD.

Hi, @sharkattacka

Name changed specifically for this post, as don't want it linked to my normal username.

I'm diagnosed with Autism, Tourettes, combined ADHD and ODD, as is one of my DD (7.5).

I guess I'd say that not all stimming can be controlled, nor should it. With tics, be they physical or verbal, in my experience (and from conversations I've had with my DD and other children and adults); they feel more urgent and there is not the same appeal/'soothing' pay off that stimming can 'bring'.

My 'brand' of Tourettes/Tourettes is easier to manage as an individual than that of my lovely daughters'. She has a lot of vocal and verbal tics, but some of the physical tics are actually painful, with muscular spasms meaning her body 'jerks' awkwardly.

Sharing this link to a video of a young man who is a distant relative of mine to give a 'real life' perspective of Tourettes:

I did want to add that tics don't necessarily indicate Tourettes, though, as another DD has tics, but absolutely does not have Tourettes.

Just in accordance with what OP has written, this isn't akin to echolalia.

It sounds like tics, but tics aren’t always Tourette’s.

I’d have a chat with your GP

My daughter has Tourette’s and she has tics that come and go and change for something else, but she also has a whole array of other random tics as well. I think the diagnostic criteria for Tourette’s is 2 or more different motor and verbal tics at the same time for more than a year.

She’s also Autistic and stims.

I find with DD, if she’s focussed on something she tics a lot less - she rides horses and barely tics when riding.

We totally ignore her tics, unless she hurts herself, breaks something (she once got stuck in a loop of smashing glasses on the kitchen floor) or says something you can’t help but laugh at. The more attention people pay to her tics, the more anxious she gets, the worse the tics get.

She feels a premonitory urge (she describes it as feeling like electricity down her back) before she tics. She doesn’t feel that urge when stimming