Blinking

[Triggles]

We've noticed that DS2 does a lot of blinking - very pronounced - when he is distressed. He also looks out the side of his eyes, instead of focusing directly. It's a signal to us as well that he is struggling and gets worse as he deteriorates.

Anyone else's child do this?

Hmmm.... we've asked about this as well as vocal outbursts and were told that it was probably just stress and to keep an eye on it. However, we have been a bit concerned about Tourette's. I've seen a number of things that said it tends to have flashes of tics when younger, but more onset about 6-7 yo, although I don't know how correct it is. DS2 is 5yo, will be 6 this summer.

In fact, we were so concerned about it that we insisted on a visual exam from a specialist, which he had last autumn, showing no problems. We were concerned there might be a physical problem with his eyes of some sort.

Triggles, ds1 does this and it comes back every single time he is going into emotional freefall.

We also thought there must be something wrong with his eyes and got him an eye exam, but it was all clear. At it's worst he became very distressed as it stopped him from being able to read and reading is/was his escape in times of stress.

We went through a time, when he was at his worst anxiety-wise of thinking he was going to end up with a Tourettes dx as well as ASD. He was blinking, eye scrunching, throat clearing, vocalising, had a head/neck movement thing and also developed some hand-movement type tics.

Each one diminished as his stress and anxiety levels came down and he was better supported at school. Now if we see them starting to creep back in we know it's time to do some investigating and track back to the source of the anxiety or stress.

He is currently stressed and anxious about school year transition and his hand movement/s, throat clearing and head/neck movements are all resurfacing. We are trying everything we can to support him through his anxiety and the eye one hasn't come back yet. If it does, we know things are really bad. I know from experience that they will ease off a little by mid summer holiday and then get much worse before he goes back in September, accompanied by terrible upset stomachs, migraines and reflux.

I have a feeling we will be seeing them a lot over the next 12 months, as he is already really anxious about going to secondary in September 2013.

Triggles my ds does this too, and often looks out side of eyes but also at times puts his hand up as though shading his eyes. He is 11 has done this for years but within last 6 weeks or so has tourettes dx. (also vocal outbursts constant which is new), as well as tourettes movement tics.

Our Son started blinking alot at the age of 8, he was teased at school for it, we had eye examinations and all were clear, the blinking lasted for a few months then just went away on it's own. So thought no more of it as we were concentrating on his other difficulties, 2011 aged 11 his blinking came back along with facial grimaces and vocal TICS now being assessed for tourettes, they do wax and wane depending on his emotional state, especially anxiety where they are at there worst or when he is really excited. So anxiety seems to be the theme.

ds does the looking out of the sides of his eyes thing not very often now but he used to have habits that lasted ages like rolling his eyes, or flicking them up to the side or screwing his eyes up, he sometimes make throaty noises too or licks his lips until the skin cracks they tend to come and go and its always one thing at a time i still dont know what makes them flare up

Dd3 does the throat clearing and lip licking. She also wipes her face with her jumper repetetively when she is stressed and makes it really sore.

With her it is definitely stress related and she hasnt done the lip licking since we changed her school.

Throat clearing comes and goes.

She also hums and makes random noises but this is usually when she is concentrating [or annoying her sister]

A LO I am working with who I suspect has ASD does the blinking thing when we try to redirect her.

Wow. So it's a pretty frequent tic, I see. Thank you for all the input on this.

He has consistently done this (blinking/looking out side of his eyes/shutting one eye/squinting) since just after he turned 4yo. It's always worse during more stressful times, but it's something we see daily. It has never gone away. He has some vocal tics/outbursts - they seem more frequent when he's more stimulated, like when he's playing his DS or on the Wii, or when he is upset/stressed, although sometimes they show up for no apparent reason.

I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on it, and see how it goes. We've asked him when he's doing repetitive movements or doing vocal outbursts why he is doing them and he can't really generally answer. Once when we asked, he said "because I have to."

Ds1 does it too. It will come on for a month or two, and then disappear again. He does scrunch, then a weird eye rolly and look out of the side thing, and also the throat thing. It is intermittent though. He does have issues with anxiety.

Ds said similar Triggles and I watched an interview with a girl who has AS once who said it sort of physically hurts if she doesn't allow herself to tic or stim.

Apparently, she can stop herself for a finite length of time now she's older, but it takes a huge amount of effort and leaves her completely exhausted.

Ds1 pretty much backed that up when we had a chat about it once.

I've read that Tourette's is often co-morbid with ADHD, which DS2 has. But also that tics are common in ADHD and ASD, which he also has.

Regarding the "looking out the side of the eyes" thing...awhile ago, when we were getting his eyes checked, I found online a medical page of some sort that stated that children with ADHD or ASD sometimes did this because they are overloaded by sensory input, and that looking out the sides meant that they were using their peripheral vision, which uses less colour cones in the eye (less colour and detail), so it immediately drops down the level of sensory input they're coping with. I suppose it makes sense, as often when DS is doing that, he will cover his ears as well - to lower the input of sound? Again, is it instinctive to drop down the sensory input? I don't know... and I haven't been able to find the wretched page again since then (was about 18 months ago).

It's an interesting theory.

Has nothing to do with blinking tics and such. But just that one particular thing - the looking out the side of the eyes.

I think I read something similar to that once as well Triggles.

Ds1 found dd's ear defenders (from when we went to a music festival recently) the other day and was so delighted that he could put them on and read his book without being bothered by his sister playing in the same room. We are looking into getting some noise cancelling ones for him now as he has been unable to read due to not being able to reduce sensory overload recently and without reading to calm him down he is a nightmare.

Interestingly, I've actually lost my peripheral vision in my right eye due to a neuro problem and I do kind of feel under assault on that side, as if everything is too bright, fast and busy, iyswim. Never really thought about that before.

Ds has an ADHD dx, with aspie traits. Tourettes is probably the one thing that hasn't been considered, lol! Not sure about the sensory thing re Ds tbh. He does have some sensory quirks, but his eye rolly thing is usuall accompanied by a really wide eye stretch along with the scrunch and the side thing... So maybe more of a deliberate sensory seeking experience, rather than shutting it down? So tricksy...

It's hard, isn't it? I sometimes think I'd like to get a view of what's going on in his head, but then again, sometimes maybe not!

My Ds has ASD&ADHD. Hes 7.
He has lots of ticks including blinking. They always get worse in stressful times... His current tick is burping-very annoying to listen to burping all day!!

The worst one was a noise similar to a darlik!!(sp)

He goes to AS school&his poor teacher has to listen to him all day but even worse, the other children copy each others ticks. So she has to listen to7 boys burping all day!

DS has recently been dx with upper body and vocal tics (tourettes)

He does the sideways thing with the eyes but also rolls them up into his head. Had facial grimmaces as in raising eyebrows up then down to a frown, wrinkling nose up and down like a bunny.

Vocal wise he can roar which is ususally a sign of extreme stress overload as he does it the once then no more. Has a high pitched scream/shriek just randomly again not all day every day. Throat clears, click clocks mouth noise and recently hes taken to copying bird sounds and beat boxing

Tiredness, over concentrating and stress are usually the culprits of this tics

The TA has noticed an increase in vocal tics as well as the blinking in the past few months. I think I'll need to jot this all down and keep track of it over the summer and in the autumn when we see the paed again, we will bring it up, so she is aware.

I'm not concerned about getting any kind of dx for tourettes or anything, but I am concerned that it seems to be increasing in frequency.

Sadly, I'm actually comforted that it's not just DS2 though. Sorry, I know that sounds awful, but I think it's less worrisome if others are seeing it as well IYSWIM. Does that make sense?

Is he on any meds yet Triggles?

DS has AS/ADHD along with tourettes and they are avoiding meds right now but it does say in the report for proffessionals that may consider meds to introduce stimulants with caution in view of potential exacerbation of tics. To consider atomoxetine as a alternative treatment?

dont know if that helps or not but it might help if meds are considered in the future :)

No. They've suggested meds, but we've said no. We can't even get liquid Calpol into him when he needs it without a massive struggle (although he seems to be getting more cooperative drinking it out of an eggcup), so I cannot even imagine trying to get a tablet into him!

And we're just not comfortable giving him the meds, especially if they make the tics worse.