Any experience of tics or even tourettes?

[orangehead]

I have posted a few times in the past about concerns regarding ds aged 6 behaviour. I have had concerns for probably a couple of years. It has been difficult to pinpoint the problem in the past. I would desribe him as away with the faires most of the time, if that makes sense. In some ways very intelligent(excellent reader) and other things he really doesnt get and socially awkward. No sense of danger. He spends most of his time spinning on the spot. Dark moods for no reason and uncontrolable tantrums that seem to come from no where. I could go on. However the last 3 maybe 4 months he has developed many tics, blowing on his arms and objects, head tics, shoulder tics, various hand movement, grinding his teeth, clearly his throat. The last two weeks he has also started repeating words several times,sometimes random words but mostly "one, two, three" over and over again. He also tries to hurt himself, scratching and hittng when he gets upset. Most of the time he is a very loving and affectionate boy.
He had his first appointment with cahms about 3 weeks ago and it another 2 weeks till the next.
I know no one on here can possibly say yes he has tourettes or no he doesnt. But I just feel a bit lost till the next appointment.
If I dont reply to any posts its cause Im goin to bed soon but I will check on tomorrow. Any support would be gratefully received

I feel for you, I am no expert and have no experience. But, it is apparent that something out of the ordinary is going on with your son. You are doing the best thing and getting him seen early on so he can be helped.

There's a Facebook Tourette's support group - have you thought of talking to them?

Thanks both of you. I did briefly look at the facebook support group but it was quite late last night.

Hi Orange

You are absolutely doing the right thing for your ds and CAHMS will no doubt help your ds to sort out what is going on.

If you want to seek some support from people already going through exactly the same things, pop over to the special needs board and you will find a really nice friendly and most of all knowledgeable and helpful bunch of people . Just copy and paste your thread across.

Hope to see you there soon!

Thanks Barmy, will do

What you describe sounds very similar to how my son is. He?s 9 now but from a very early age, displayed what most might consider ?quirky? behaviour.

He?s extremely intelligent and like your son, an excellent and avid reader. When he was younger, he would jump up and down on the spot whenever he got excited about something (and that could be anything from seeing a passing train to whatever was going round in the washing machine) and found it incredibly hard to suppress because he had no idea he was doing it until told to stop.

He?d sometimes bawl his eyes out because he really wanted to stop it but just couldn?t and although he does sometimes fall into what seems to be a deep depression, he?s never badly behaved or unruly for anyone ? just very ?down?.

Once we?d manage to sort out the jumping up and down, he replaced it almost immediately with gritting his teeth together and that was later replaced with blowing on his arms, flapping his hands about, rubbing his nose repeatedly and then pulling out his own eyelashes!

He also blurts out random words and phrases and does make the odd bizarre noise every now and then although it?s not quite as bad as it used to be.

The Educational Psychologist is querying Asperger?s / Dyspraxia, both of which are closely linked with Tourette?s. They?re still assessing him though so it may well be something else altogether.

The dyspraxia foundation have lots of good info.

www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk

Hi Orangehead,

I am the proud mother of a wonderful 13 year old boy who has an exceptional high IQ, is funny, witty and good hearted and has Tourettes along with the social skills of a dead fish.
We have a wonderful variety of motion and vocal tics.

It sounds like your little DS has joined the Toureets club, CHAMS is a good place to start, also have a chat with the senco at school (if not already done so).

The tics come and go and change, we are so used to it we don't notice so much now.
I would recommend a book called "is that my child" it covers a whole heap of things but has a good chapter on Tourettes.

Please feel free to email me [email protected]

Spanner DS1 is in the Asperger?s spectrum.
At the age of 11 he had a IQ of 148 and a reading age of 16+ a spelling age of 15 and doing year 9 math.

He has a saying when people behave like pricks idiots about his Tourettes

I guess I just have to deal with a whole lot of ugly from a long line of stupid"
He terms himself as unique and I am so very proud of him.

Kimi- you sound like a wonderful and supportive mother. Thankyou for the book link. I have just finished reading 'Passing for normal' which was very good and give me a bit more of an insight of what might be going on in his mind and made me realize his out of the blue tantums may be due to his rountines being interrupeted.
Spanner - school did mention dyspraxia a while ago, infact so many things have been mentioned. In some ways dyspraxia fits but he is very good at balancing, sports and espeacially good at dancing. Not sure if it always the case that with dyspraxia you have co ordination problems. I am dyslexic and although not been dx think I am probably dyspraxic.

Orangehead, DS1 likes routine (but so do I so no worry there).

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I can say to you is get everyone on side, all singing from the same sheet, school, Dr, CAMHs, family, friends, the whole lot to provide your child with the support he needs where ever he is.

DS1 has addressed his school class mates in both primary and high school to explain his Tourettes (he has been in the past bullied half to death, mostly by one child (who I would happily run over if I could drive and he was on the pavement crossing the road).

I am not going to lie and say it gets better, or it will be easy going, it is hard, you have to be strong and you will get hurt seeing your child get hurt and struggling with the day to day.

As long as the people around your son support him you will manage, it takes a village to raise a child and I have tried to give my child the best village I can, that is my advice... the best village you can. x

His school has not been very good at all. He is actually starting a new school on monday. Due to circumstances we have moved area and it was too far to travel to school. Part of me is really worried about it, the stress with the change for him. However the new school seems more on board. So hopefully it might be for the best, but I do feel very guilty about it

Never feel guilty.

Have you made an appointment to speak with the senco at the new school?

I will ask about it tomorrow. He has been very bad with tics and tantrums today, I think its the stress of tomorrow

How did yesterday go Orangehead?