Essay On Tourette's Syndrome

Raising a child with Tourette’s syndrome is a challenge and can be socially awkward for a person with Tourette’s. Little did we know that some of the small strange things our son was doing were actually tics and what he called an itch inside his head was a premonition. We had seen doctors before concerned about some of the movements he was doing and the “itch” and was told it was nothing, just a phase and it wasn’t until he was sent to a neurologist that we got an answer, that he had Tourette’s Syndrome.

Tourette’s Syndrome is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary physical or vocal tics in a person. Tourette’s is named after Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette, who first described this condition in 1885. It usually occurs during childhood or the teen years. Facial grimacing, eye blinking, eye rolling, shoulder shrugs, head or arm jerking are just some of the various physical tics a person with Tourette’s may experience. A person with Tourette’s may also experience vocal tics which can include humming, grunting, throat clearing, sniffing or snorting, and saying obscene words. Some people with Tourette’s may have a more complex form of it by having both physical and vocal tics that can occur in a pattern. The type of tics can change over time and in how severe they may be. It may be a simple arm jerk and head twist with a grunt for a few weeks, then you start to see an arm jerk, head twist, with a leg twist or stomp and humming or barking sounds for a few weeks.

It can be inherited, though that is not so in some of the cases. Both boys and girls can have Tourette’s, with boys having the higher chance of having it. As the child ages, the tics tend to lessen but does not ever fully go away. A person must have both physical and vocal tics for at least a year to receive the diagnosis of