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Old 05-11-2007, 10:30 PM
JAM's Mom JAM's Mom is offline
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4
15 yr Member
JAM's Mom JAM's Mom is offline
New Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4
15 yr Member
Default Help with diagnosis?

Is this a forum where I can post a quick summary of symptoms my 11-year-old DS had for most of his life? If it sounds to you like he has Tourette's, I will feel a combination of guilt and gratitude:

TICS:
A lifelong pattern of one tic after another. One leaves, only to be replaced in a few months by another.
Examples:
-repeating the final consonant of a word (..d..d..d..., or t..t..t..)
-leg muscle jerking accompanied by high pitched, "squeal"
-shrugging shoulders
-water dripping, "doit, doit" sound with mouth
-sucking sound with lips
-knuckle cracking
-biting shirt
-random singing
and more...

OBSESSIVE FEARS: (and I mean horrors...like won't leave the house...)
-bees
-tornadoes
-flying monorails (after a trip to Disney)
-throwing things away (ran to curb on trash day for a year and dragged trash back in..I had to let him sleep late until garbage truck was gone)
-water sprayers on ceilings of stores
and more...one would come, then leave after 6-8 months, then another

MOOD SWINGS
-when happy, ELATED!!! clapping hands in quasi-childish way,
-when sad, sobbing!!
-when frustrated, totally HOPELESSLY so!
-when angry, ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS!

UNUSUAL TALENTS/CHALLENGES:
-piano prodigy (has an agent, plays jobs for $$ in restaurants...loves and copies jazz like professional)
-"ceiling" math scores (5th grade, tests at 12th grade)
-amazing tap dancer (!)
-charasmatic on-stage actor (performs in community theatre, frequently gets leads of 300+ lines in children's productions, memorizes them instantly)
-"larger than life" personality...huge appetite for performing
-almost ZERO memory for spelling
-great difficulty reading
-very late talker
-almost unable to relate to peers one-on-one..seems to have no "social radar"


HERE IS WHY HE IS NOT OFFICIALLY DIAGNOSED:

I have taken him to three psychologists. At each visit, DS has never exhibited the behaviors. He is charming, funny, and "fine" at the meetings. All three say he's fine, just a struggling reader. How many times do I "take him in?" I have the "feeling" there is something not quite right. I have two other children. I am a pretty laid back mother, my DH is supportive but gets annoyed by the vocal outbursts. We home school, so he doesn't get teased (except sometimes by sisters who also complain about vocalizations). I can tell he is embarassed by the tics, but he's great at covering them up or working them into some other body movement. Plus, when he is focused on some activity obsessively like acting, dancing, or playing piano, he doesn't do the tics. But when he eats ice cream, he has repeated, severe jerking of his leg muscles.

Do any of you think this sounds like a pattern consistent with Tourettes? If so, how do I get him accurately diagnosed, and what is the next step? If I totally ignore this, I will feel like I've really let him down.

Thank you so very much for any advice.

Last edited by JAM's Mom; 05-11-2007 at 10:49 PM. Reason: added to symptoms, as memory helped
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