6 year old vocal to motor tic

[fingerscrossed101]

My son just turned 6 and has been a healthy child.  He is socially active and growing well.  He just started full day kindergarten but appeared very confident about going.  We noticed he that he started making a random noise - like a 2 or 3 syllable sound randomly throughout the day.  Upon further observation it appeared he made this sound whenever he was excited about something, his birthday party, skateboarding, or playing video game.  He also did it at other times throughout the day.  The sound was subtle but distinct if you were listening for it.  I talked to the Dr. and they think it's a tic and told us to monitor him for other symptoms and we would be seeing the Dr. in several weeks at his upcoming annual physical.  Well it's been 4 days now and it seems like the vocal tic has changed today to a motor tic.  He does not appear to be doing both but one instead of the other now.  He is rolling his eyes up into his head and did this over dinner about 10 times in 5 minutes.  Oh I forgot to add that I asked my son about the noise he made and he said his mouth just makes him do it.  Anyway....does this still fall into the realm of a transient tic that may go away or is this a sign of something more?

Thanks,

Naomi

[minichief]

I think my son has Tourette's also.  We started noticing symptoms when he was around five.  He started with a costant clearing of the throat.   My husband opened up to me and told me that he thinks he himself has it as well, but never told me because the tics got better and he knows how to hide them well.   Now my son has started licking his shoulder constantly.  For a while he was jutting out his chin a lot.  The licking of the shoulder (he's now 6) has by far been the most disturbing of his tics because it's very obvious and we're worried he will be teased.  Plus his shirt is always wet.  He does not have ocd-like symptoms, but he excites easily.  Like your son, my son tells me that he can't help it or he just has to do it or his "mouth" made him do it.  I feel terrible because I've asked him to stop doing it several times, but then my husband told me that is the wrong thing to do.  I guess the tics have to be expressed.  My husband said as he got older, he was able to learn to suppress them until he got to an area that he could do so with privacy.   We took my son to a neurologist who said if he does have tourette's there's nothing really we can do about it except sometimes opt for certain medications, but he doesn't think his tics are severe enough to pursue that route and that the medications can sometimes cause other side effects.  Additionally, he said that children with adhd will take the meds and then start developing tics.  I know that adhd and ocd can go hand in hand with Tourette's.  Either way, I wish you all of the luck in finding out a diagnosis.  

[isthistourettes]

I have Tourette Syndrome. My first tics were at the age of 5. I kept on gulping, then it spread out to scrunching my nose, rolling my eyes, and jerking my neck and hitting my stomach. An throat clearing, and other vocal tics. I really think you son might have tourette syndrome. Some children are diagnosed as early a 2 years old. I was diagnosed when I was 13, because of some issues are family had, we couldn't go earlier. The ealier you catch the TS the more help you can get, the more help you can get the more you can work with the tics.
here is a web site I made: isthistourette.web.com
and my youtube is: youtube.com/user/isthistourettes
they both have info about my tics and on youtube you can see them!!
:)
good luck!!
What did the neuro say??