“Ok my child has Tourettes. How will this condition affect their everyday regular activities? How will it affect their life?”

So I decided to actually create a post explaining my views on the matter.

Children with Tourette’s Syndrome usually have trouble with schoolwork such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. This is related to the neurological disorder that causes the Tourette’s Syndrome, yet is often misdiagnosed as a hyperactivity disorder. Children suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome often experience excessive compulsive symptoms; these can result in constant worrying, intrusive thoughts, and repetitive behaviors.

As an example, someone affected Tourette’s Syndrome may repetitively wash their hands for fear of germs or compulsively count steps as a way to familiarize themselves with their surroundings. They may also have very specific ways in which they want things to be set up for them, ordered, or laid out on a table. In addition, they will have issues with changes to their schedules.

This may manifest itself in an essential regular schedule each day where things occur at specific times (from when breakfast is served to when the child goes to bed). They may need to get dressed in the same order every day – such as underwear, pants, socks, shoes, shirt, and then hat. They may need a plate to be set out with a fork and spoon on one side and a knife on the other, with their drink cup set on the right hand side.

If your child is displaying this type of organizational behavior (directly related to OCD), do your best to accommodate them. Disrupting their schedule can be very bad for their development. Keep them to their schedule as much as humanly possible because that schedule helps them to stay focused and functional. Taking the structure away will often cause temper tantrums or irrational behavior that you cannot control.

Another aspect of how Tourette’s Syndrome affects children is that many children with the Syndrome are often reported to have problems with depression and/or anxiety disorders. This depression or anxiety, while not directly related to Tourette’s Syndrome, may be caused by the same neurological disorder that has brought about Tourette’s Syndrome.

Keep a careful eye on your child to see if he or she is being affected by anxiety or depression. Both of these types of feelings can be very detrimental to your child’s psyche and can cause the child to injure him or herself. Depression can show itself in excessive thinking, questions about existence that have a negative connotation, withdrawal from other people and things that he/she may have enjoyed being around before, frequent sad crying, and other similar behavior. Sometimes, those afflicted with depression will injure themselves as well.

Anxiety has a different type of manifestation. Often, children with anxiety will suddenly get stomach aches, or vomit when faced with important choices. They may also experience nausea when facing the possibility of going somewhere unfamiliar to them. They will often over-think things (such as if we go to the movies, what if this happens? What if this other thing happens?). The fear lies in the unknown and that unknown something or other can make the child be unwilling to do certain things or go certain places. This intransigence occurs because those things are unfamiliar or because he/she had a bad experience there.

Both anxiety and depression can be crippling to a child. He or she does not want to do anything, fears the unknown, and may experience mild to severe bodily manifestations of their anxiety or depression. Remember, your child has no control over these symptoms should they occur. He or she cannot be forced into not feeling anxiety and he or she cannot be forced into being happy.

In addition to OCD behavior, depression, and anxiety, children with Tourette’s Syndrome often suffer from both vocal and bodily tics. The early stages of these tics will begin to take effect during the first stages of a child’s development around the age of three. Throughout the first several years of elementary school, the child may develop additional and more severe tics, many of which alleviate themselves and disappear by early adulthood.

Except for the more violent self-mutilating or self-harming tics, the most adverse affect associated with Tourette’s Syndrome is the social detachment. Many children suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome have a very difficult time associating with other children. They often prefer their own company to the company of others, which will stunt their ability to function in a normal community or society.

Social detachment will show itself by a lack of desire to interact with other children. The child may play with him or herself even when other children are around; you might observe the kid refusing to play with other children even when they are approached by those children. The child might not want to share his or her toys or may allow the other child to take the toy and leave, preferring to sit quietly alone rather than play with the other child.

It is extremely difficult to pull your child out of this type of isolation. The only way to try to make this change is through introducing other people into the child’s world and creating warm and comfortable environments for interaction. Take your child with you as often as possible when you go places so that you can demonstrate social interaction by your own interaction with others and do your best to help them feel comfortable in social situations.

Learning disabilities play a large role in the lives of many children suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome. The same brain makeup that plays a role in what is believed to be the cause of Tourette’s Syndrome, can also lead to other learning disabilities. This is why many children will require additional attention as well as patience to have a successful scholastic experience. The child may seriously struggle with coursework, fall behind, do poorly on assignments, or have trouble remembering what was covered in previous lessons.

Many programs nowadays work on improving a child’s ability to learn and do well in school. For instance, the Sylvan Learning Center provides tutoring that might be helpful to your child. However, other, more recent tutoring programs specifically target children with serious learning disabilities. Their programs understand that your child does want to learn but has a physical and chemical reason for struggling in school.

Never treat your child like he or she is stupid! This will only discourage him or her from trying to learn. He or she will then reject any attempts to improve upon learning disabilities and will not want to improve. It often has the absolute opposite effect than you might think – negative reinforcement will often discourage in this situation while positive reinforcement will help encourage.

It is definitely suggested that you have a tutor work with the child as often as possible to help him or her keep up in class. If you have the time and experience to do this yourself as the parent, you can help with tutoring, but still have a tutor nonetheless because tutoring a child with learning disabilities may be an arduous task that takes a lot of time and patience.

One interesting program that may prove particularly interesting in tutoring your child is the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program. AVID focuses on teaching a child to take better notes, improve memory, and increase both the quantity and quality of information your student can learn and retain. Many schools have started implementing AVID programs to help along many of the students, which are having a difficult time in school. Find out if there is a program like this or this program itself at your child’s school and try to get him or her enrolled in it

Hope I answered most of your concerns! It’s a huge matter and one or two blog posts cannot cover it extensively but I think we did progress quite a bit today!

Remember: We can avoid all (most?) of the above by just a few simple dietary changes! Ok, maybe I am wrong or naive but I am a BIG believer in the old saying: “we are what we eat!”.

Stay frosty and God Bless!

Mary

                  

Many children who suffer from Tourette’s Syndrome also experience other neurological behavioral problems. Often, children who suffer from Tourette’s Syndrome will also be diagnosed with hyperactivity disorders such as ADHD, also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This disorder was recently discovered and is commonly treated with medication such as Ritalin.

ADHD usually shows its head during early childhood, generally around elementary level school. The children will start having difficulty keeping focus or paying attention to information provided to them. Roughly 3% to 5% of all children have ADHD, which would constitute nearly 2 million children in the United States. The primary symptoms of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity – all symptoms that will usually show themselves in children with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Children with Tourette’s also often display signs of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). This is an anxiety disorder often characterized by recurring obsessions (or unwanted thoughts), and/or compulsive behavior (repetitive, uncontrollable behavior). People afflicted with this disorder might count the number of times they brush their teeth – and require that they brush the same number of times each time. They are often cleaning, checking on things, washing their hands, or counting. They often develop daily ritual behaviors and adhere to them strictly or else their anxiety levels will rise sharply.

Both OCD and ADHD behaviors are often shown in a person with Tourette’s Syndrome. And no wonder! Several genetic studies have shown that OCD and ADHD are genetically linked to the Tourette’s Syndrome – they have similar genetic structures, backgrounds, and effects. People with Tourette’s will often demonstrate both OCD and ADHD characteristics.

At the genetic level, it has also been determined that Tourette’s Syndrome is an inherited disorder. Parents who have Tourette’s (or had it when younger and grew out of it) will often have children with Tourette’s. It is also more likely that if a relative has Tourette’s, a child might have Tourette’s. However, it is unlikely that a genetic disposition will results in a severe Tourette’s Syndrome disorder. In the majority of cases Tourette’s Syndrome is expressed through minor tics or as an obsessive-compulsive behavior.

More than genetics, the sex of the person plays a larger role in their risk of being diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. It is far more likely for an at-risk male to develop Tourette’s Syndrome than it is for an at-risk female. It is also far more likely that an at-risk female develops obsessive-compulsive symptoms than it is for an at-risk male.

It is very important that a person who is suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome has some type of genetic counseling so that they can better understand the potential hereditary problems and conditions that exist in the family.

But there is good news!…. actually great news: In the vast majority of cases the symptoms can be treated effectively with simple diet changes.

                  

But my small technical victory is nothing compared to my big victory and constant guard against Tourettes tics and its symptoms. My name is Mary Anderson and as you probably already know my son Kevin was diagnosed with Tourettes just over a year ago. I researched on the net, asked specialists and doctors and did what every parent would do: freak out! It wasn’t until a few months ago that I discovered that Tourettes is something that CAN be controlled and treated with proper diet.

I had a big problem giving to my child all sorts of strong medication and not see much change on top of that. I am against drugs in principle. Sure they have a purpose but only after all natural methods have been exhausted.

In future posts I will give more details about the long battle against Tourettes and why I believe every parent has the right to this information. But for now let me just say that… we win! That we can make a difference in  a child’s life and help them achieve their maximum potential without twitches, grunts and vocal or facial tics.

When I realized that my knowledge of Tourette’s Syndrome in all its various forms can actually help millions of parents who are now at the same situation I was more than a year ago I decided to act. My book “End Your Child’s Tics Naturally” is the result of all my efforts and all my discoveries towards my path to success.

In it I wanted to give details about my story hoping to inspire other parents in their battle. I also give a detailed explanation of Tourettes and it’s various forms. Finally, a step by step method of what needs to be added and taken out of a child’s diet to liberate them from their tics – for good.

I am so excited but I better stop here, I don’t want to get too “trigger happy” now that I learned how to use this excellent medium of communication. Please feel free to email me or call me if you have any questions.

Both my email and contact number is on my site: www.endmytics.org .

Till next time!