TS and TS+ Awareness - feel the need to educate after trip to WalMart!

[toddlermominoma]

I know what you're thinking, another "awareness" post but, after what happened to my son - my 4 1/2 year old in WalMart yesterday, I kind of felt the need to educate people today!

I'll explain at the end.

Not to mention that Friday kicked off TS Awareness Month.

When you hear TS, you think, as I did, cursing, loud, severe, involuntary body movements of one kind or another. While this does occur, it happens in a smaller number of individuals than the media would lead you to believe.

First, let me explain exactly what TS is. First - it is not an "excuse" for a child to do or say things. Second - it is a neurological disorder, characterized by "tics" that must be present for 12 months. There is no cure for TS but, in some cases, as the child ages, their tic symptoms will ease up or seem to completely dissipate.

 

TS for a majority of children are as simple or as complicated, as motor and vocal tics. There are several different types of "Tics",  simple and complex - vocal and motor tics. There are even obsessive compulsive and sensory tics! Tics can increase with stress, wax and wane throughout a lifetime and even change and then old ones return. Tics can even be suppressed, as a child ages, for a short time but, they will return with a veracity.

Most people with TS will not need medications. In fact, some people go there whole lives and do not know that they even have TS! Often times, they can get misdiagnosed as having OCD. When you ask a psych. what is the difference, the line is a bit fuzzy. It has been noted though, several times, that if you ask an obsessive compulsive why they do what they do, ie - washing their hands, they will respond something about getting germs, when you ask them what happens if they get those germs, they will tell you they'll die.

When you ask a TS person why they NEED to tap three times on one side of the desk, then three times on the other, they will tell you because it feels good.

Given this information and knowledge, they've discovered over the many years that tics can be any number of things. Even things you'd never think of as a tic. Here are some examples: hand flapping, head banging, echolalia, echopraxia, eye rolling, eye blinking (squinting), gasping, pulling or tuggin on clothes, continuous lip licking, sniffing, jumping, squeaking, etc.

 

This is not the end of what some TS children have to endure. There are those with TS+. TS+ is TS with ADHD, OCD, ODD, learning disabilities, SPD, etc. These children will go through the some pretty hard stuff, as will their families. These children often experience "rages", described by a mother I know as something similar to that of an autistic child, and she would know, her oldest has ASD.

One of the biggest problems for these children is if their tics aren't in need of medication, then their other issues usually need it. Some parents report that the stimulant meds that they put their children on, exacerbate the tics. The trick for these families is to find the right combo of meds to balance all issues. This can take years!

So, if you're walking in your local WalMart, and you see a little guy, with a sweet face. He's walking funny, looking down at his feet....his face twitching every 30 seconds or so....he's stopping in between the twitching face to gasp for no reason.....walking just so in the squares of tile on the ground, careful not to step on the cracks...

do not expect him to move from the straight line he's walking....do not wait until you're on top of him and you're almost running over him. And don't you dare give his mother a dirty look and make some assinine comment! He is being good, he is not looking at you coming, he is in his own world. Try to excercise come compassion and be a mother; be a human being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MOMMYTO5CUTIES]

May. 18, 2009 at 9:25 AM

This is a really informative post .

[MamaRita]

May. 19, 2009 at 11:32 AM

I believe you just described my Grandson Lane, This is exactly what he does, sometimes the tic's get so severe his voice will go from high to low & very choppy as his body will tic, Once while saying our Family blessing on Christmas day, was the worst I can ever remember, he never stopped the blessing until he had said each & every word of his blessing "God is Great, God is Good, let us thank him for this food, etc" When he finally finished, the family in a large circle holding hands, there was not a dry eye. Lane has Autism, he is age 10, still not mainstreamed in school, his words are choppy even without the ticking! GREAT POST! Thank you!