Hello everyone...

Thankyou so much for the links to the adds.

I'm in Aust and had no idea about Tourettes awareness week.

Wish these adds were Australia wide. They are very tastefully done too. They even included the twirl in the second one , my son has that at times.

I'm tossing up if I'll show him the adds, because sometimes he says that to see others tic make him want to do it. Does anyone find that?

Isn't the boy in the add adorable? Good on him for doing it.

Curious... you say it's out in the open where you are... how was this acheived?
Over here not much is known, and when shows like 60 mins have extreme cases on their shows and no real explanation of the different degrees of it, people think TS is just that.

If you mention TS people either have never heard of it or see it as portrayed on TV.

Thanks again,
Lyn.

{really do wish those adds were here too. lol}

hi lyn,

my daughters school distict strives to "main stream" all kids. they want all kids in the regular class rooms and not put in "special education".

to isolate kids from their peers does more harm than good.

so from a young age, kids are taught. it might be a child with ts, or cp, downs syndrome or something else, who is in their class. the kids are educated on what makes these kids who they are. it takes the scare factor and the guess work out of it for the kids. if they guess, boy can they make up wild stories.

one of her dearest friends since 1st grade has severe aspargers and other dx's. if this girl had never been put in regular classes, they wouldn't have met and made such a special bond.

my own daughter, known on this forum as lil'monkey (pictures in my profile ) was born with a hemengioma that grew, turned gangrene and almost killed her. it was on her neck. very noticable. HUGE, in fact. she had surgery right before starting school.

even when she still had it, if she was asked what it was, no big deal. it was those, especially adults , who didn't asked and stared or made rude comments.

her scar, that is the funny thing. it still has some of the red of the hemegioma. cracks her up when people think she has almost had her head chopped off. she is good about it. doesn't make up wild stories about how she got her scar. she was warned about no pirate stories.

education. these kids will grow up and make the change for future generations and hopefully the make the ignorance go away.

Curious... that sounds like a great school. Why can't eveywhere be like that? It's the ideal way to make kids grow up with the understanding that though we may all be different, we're still humans with feelings.

I wish those adds had been shown all over Aust, I'm wondering if they were only shown in Tasmania? I've given the link to a few others whoses kids have TS.

I agree that we need to start with the kids to change the future as far as accepting others is concerned. Generally I think most kids are accepting to start with, but the adults can sometimes change the childs perspective.

My eldest son {he'ss 22 now} made me so proud when he was in gr 5. He had made friends with a new boy at the school and he'd always come home talking about him. About 3 weeks later he brought him over to our house. My son had never mentioned that his friend had had a stroke 4 yrs earlier that had left him dragging one side of his body, his hand bent and slurred speech.

After his friend left I asked my son why he had never mentioned his friends problems before. My boy just looked at me dumbfounded and said "Why? He's no different to anyone else." I felt my heart swell.

Even now they are very good mates, and my son MADE his group of friends include this boy in their group. His mother has said she will always be grateful to him for that.

Just thought I'd share that.

Thanks,
Lyn.

Hi All

Just thought you might be interested to know in 2006 in the UK: Pete Benette won BIG BROTHER..He was voted to win by the public, and was the bookies and publics favourite from the first day.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/events/2007...ners/browse/11

He did more for TS than anyone or thing has ever done in the UK.

David

thanks for starting this thread Moi



I think the TSA really has done a lot in the USA to bring TS to the public awareness, especially by backing things like the HBO documentary and of course pushing hard enough to finally get the education classification under Americans with Disability Act

lots of advocacy, activism and funding of research from them too

http://www.tsa-usa.org

Well I think you turned out pretty wonderful but then again I am prejudiced cause I happen to wuVVVV you and Moss!

Moi, you and my son would get on really well

we once had a thread at the old forum where I met Lara (sure miss ya Lara ) about all the positives about TS and it was always amazing to read through and go yeah ! yeah! yeah!

my son realized early in his life that living with TS was going to be an enormous challenge and like you, he chose to have humor as a foundation to help him thru that challenge and began to build on all the plusses that TS brought, not just those artistic and intuitive ones, but also the compassion that it can open up toward others.

My son was so astonished at the ignorance that abounds about neurological disorders in general. as well as TS in particular, and from sometimes having to endure ridicule for the tics from kids and misunderstanding by adults. He started advocating at a young age, especially amongst his peers and spoke at a couple of TSA meetings over the past 8 years. (proud mama )


he knows it has made him a better person too.

LOL one reason he dint keep going regularly to the TS meetings is that he "catches" tics I know a number of TSers who say the same. One girl we know volunteers for the TS summer camps as a counsellor and always joked how she comes home with all these new tics.

I loved your "all you can tic" buffet bit hehehehehe

I'm really pleased now that I thought to mention the advertisements, and I thank you Curious for posting those links.

I don't know where you live Linnie, but why don't you contact the Australian TS Society and ask them about the ads? I'm in Launceston so you can tell them that they're being aired here. They're probably running in Hobart as well, as we usually get the same ads unless it's advertising about local businesses or events.

I was going to suggest contacting your TV networks, but they can only show what they've been directed to show.

Good luck!

hi folks,

thanks for all the replies and links and suggestions but most of all, awesome friendship....

am going through some personal depression right now so have been feeling a bit of lost for words....

but wanted to come in here and thank you all because I truly DO care about you guys so very much...

will be back and catch up and post....

((((BIG HUGS))))

(((((((moi)))))))

pretty cool you will have some catch of reading to do here huh?