Coping with TS

For a young person with special needs, any change can be a challenge, but the transition from primary to secondary school can be one of the biggest challenges of their entire school career.

Here, we look at the typical difficulties that children with TS experience and how we can help them make the transition as smooth as possible.

Tourette’s does not affect IQ. It is not a learning disability, although it can cause significant learning difficulties. A major problem for people with TS is that they can have such a wide variety of tics. Tics come and go and vary in intensity and form.

Coughing and blinking are often the first tics to appear. Tics can cause fatigue, pain and injuries which makes it difficult to follow lessons well, to concentrate and to perform tasks such as writing exercises.

Socially, it can lead to bullying and exclusion, especially during puberty and adolescence when the tics are at their most severe.

A misconception is that it is only the tics that cause the most difficulties. Unfortunately, TS usually occurs together with other conditions, the so-called comorbidities. Young people indicate that these often cause more difficulties than the tics themselves. The conditions that most often occur together with TS are OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), ADHD and sometimes ASD.

It is therefore important that the treatment of TS must be tailored to each child individually and always in consultation with a specialist. This also applies to the school career of someone with TS. Their difficulties but also their strengths are very different and unique for each student and therefore the education and approach must in fact be tailor-made. What works for one, sometimes does not work at all for another.

PLANNING

Consultation between teachers from primary school, secondary school and parents can be a way to draw up an individual transition plan. Such consultation moments are ideal for transferring the acquired expertise, such as which tics often occur and whether there are comorbidities. Tips on recognizing certain behavior and the best approach to this can be passed on. In this way, the future teacher knows what is involuntary behavior and what is not and can tackle it in the right way. Some vocal tics can be loud and disruptive, but asking the student to stop is not helpful. It just makes things worse. There are many other activities that are affected by TS such as communication, planning, time management, organization, and completing assignments. Tics can also negatively impact classwork, homework, and exams. Hand and eye tics can affect handwriting, making it difficult to complete assignments on time and making them look messy.

SUPPORT

Increasing knowledge and awareness of this condition and what support these students need can be of great help to students with TS. There are few resources specifically on dealing with students with TS. Some instructions for students with ASD include helpful tips on planning and organization, anxiety, or challenging behavior.

The tools that teachers and students often find helpful are the use of an emotional barometer and a self-curated toolkit for dealing with students with challenging behavior and tantrums. For those who have difficulty with planning and organization, a personalized schedule can be created that can help organize and do homework and makes it clear what needs to be done first and also teaches the student what priorities he or she needs to set.

In consultation with the parents and student, cards can be used. The student can then hold them up or put them on the corner of the desk when they are having a hard time or feel a tic attack coming on. The student can then leave the classroom or the activity for a while to tic out. That is being able to let go of the tics for a while      

Iktic-Jetique can always come give a presentation in schools or teach the teachers and pupils how to act towards a pupil with Tourette’s and to educate them.