Red and Black

Greetings,
The past holiday I had some family over along with some guest, and one of the guest's children, I believe, has a symptom of Tics. He kept making involuntary vocal sounds such as "hmmpt" and "mmhmmt" sounds. It wasn't loud or anything but it was noticeable. I also remember hearing something like that when I used to work at an automotive shop, one of my coworkers made those sounds also, but it was as if once he became busy with something he suddenly stopped. Remembering that, I hung out with the little one and played some video games with him, I notice the "TICS" stopped once he had his mind on something also.

My questions, are these really Tics or forms of them? Or is my diagnosis completely wrong and they are something else? For those who have or know someone who have them, have you tried to find the source of why it happens and have you tried treating it? Thanks in advance. Cheers.

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tsohg a nees uoy ekil skool

Shadowex3

That sounds a lot like Tourette's Syndrome, which is the actual syndrome that causes motor or verbal tics. Think of it as like parkinsons or epilepsy but with twitches, motor actions, sounds, or even whole blurted phrases. It's not in his head (except in the literal sense), he can't control it no matter how smart he is, and the only real way to fight it consciously is literally forcing your body to do something else. Stress or allergies can make it display worse and profound concentration can help a lot. I still tic when I'm playing videogames but not nearly as much. It probably has to do with the way the brain works given that I know at least one surgeon with Parkinsons whose hands are like steel the moment he touches a patient.

As long as the tics aren't bad enough to make it difficult to perform physical functions there's really no reason to do anything at all. I assure you at that age we're far more bothered by it than you are, and since stress aggravates tics things tend to get worse in direct proportion to how many well meaning adults insist on attempting to force the poor kid to stop. Since it's neurological and not emotional or mental (which is why the "if you're so smart" argument falls apart) that's obviously just not possible.

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