My DD started with a similar vocal tic around Easter time, she is 13. We tried to ignore it at first, then we started pointing it out to her, offering suggestions to stop it (holding breath when getting urge, swallowing more, drinking more etc) but this just made it get worse. In the end, we just ignored it. Then all of a sudden, after about 8 weeks, it stopped. We didn’t say anything, didn’t acknowledge it. We’ve had nothing for four months. Unfortunately ,she has started doing it again this week, so I’m wondering if it’s linked to times of stress as she’s just gone back to school. We are ignoring it again. Luckily, her friends are supportive and ignore it too but I do worry someone at school will say something and upset her.
As an aside, my Ds has autism and he had many tics growing up (he is 20 now) but they all fizzled out before six months had passed. We were told that six months was the difference between a transient tic and perhaps something more like Tourette’s. He still has very subtle tics now, so is obviously more on our radar for our DD who we don’t believe is neurodiverse.
My advice would be to try to take the stress out of the vocal tic for him, and it may lessen, try to ignore it as best you can. Tricky when they go to school though.