Any experience with childhood tics? Desperate for help.

[njshep]

My 9 year old son has recently (within last month or so) begun constantly flicking his head back almost as though he needs get hair out his face. We first thought it became a bad habit after he had his hair longer throughout covid and he needed to do it to get it out of his face but now his hair is short and it continues. He does this several times within a span of 10 minutes and I feel like it has recently gotten worse.
We brought him into a dr who is going to run a neck X-ray but also suggested it might be a tic.
I am worried sick. He is a well adjusted, happy and super athletic child and the thought of him struggling with this is so upsetting. It really started to amplify when the kids here ( I live in Canada) had to roll back to remote learning in early April as the covid situation started becoming serious again.
Does anyone have any experience with childhood tics they can share? It is so prevalent right now I can’t see how this might disappear.
Very stressed.
Any help or insight would be appreciated.

I had a verbal tic way back in the 70s when nobody knew what it was....I used to make a certain sound. My family all thought it was funny and it never bothered me. Luckily it just went away.

Yes my son has tics and no other problems. He is very bright (above average) and is very social and active - a popular boy at school! He started doing the flicking back hair movement exactly like your child because of long corona-hair. It stopped after a couple of weeks. Now a new tic has arrived - he keeps looking and smelling his thumb. My cousin has tic disorder (as Well as so many other challenges) so I asked my aunt what the best thing to do is. She said to NEVER comment on the tic. Commenting and questioning it makes the child feel like he is doing something wrong - and they really can't help it! It will pass - I promise you. But he might get a new tic again in a short while. If he is excited og a bit tired the tic might get worse. Try not to worry about it if you can - if he really isn't struggling anywhere else. It's worse for us as parents having to watch it. My son doesn't mind the tic - but he did mind when we kept commenting and asking him to please stop it. I has tics as a child too and I remember it as something that started as a real problem then growing into this tic/habit. Like I would constantly put my upper lip up to my nose at one point when I was 10-11 because I had ONCE seen a very little bit of snot in my nose. So I kept doing it to be sure there wasn't any. I hope this answer isn't too boring to read - it is really long.

This really so helpful and thank you so kindly for taking the time to share your similar experience.