Possible Tourettes?

[puprock97]

My 11 year old niece shows what I think might be signs of Tourette Syndrome. She scrunches up her nose and tightly blinks her eyes sometimes.
She told me she'll feel cramped up and wiggly sometimes.
She said around her chest she feels "an excited" feeling and will have to tighten her throat to make it go away.

And sometimes she randomly kicks or does some ackward movement and she said she doesn't do it, it just happens.

I'm really concerned about her.
She's been doing this for years.

[puprock97]

We took her to a doctor a few days ago, she has tourettes syndrome, and she now has a medication to help. :)

[Blue_eyes82]

She might not be autistic but it doesn't hurt to get her checked out.  There are autistic savants who can do and remember things that "normal" people can't...such as master new languages in days, play any musical instrument the first time they try and let's not forget the real-life autistic man portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man".

I'm just saying that autistic doesn't have to be synonymous with below-average intelligence.  Maybe she likes the attention she gets when she does these "silly" things.  I have no way to know.  But your best bet, if you really want a sound diagnosis, is to make an appointment with a doctor.  I hope you're able to find an answer.

[puprock97]

I highly doubt it's autism. She is in the gifted classes at her school and her IQ is around 113. She has a high amount of common sense also.

[lincolnsfriend]

take her to a neurologist and a psychiatrist. could be tourettes, just childhood tics,symtoms of autism or aspergers syndrom. better get her evaluated.

[puprock97]

Another Update--
She also rubs her fingertips hard on things pushing the skin over her nails (hard to explain) and she said it feels good. She randomly squeals.
Now, this is difficult to explain but if she were to touch my dog's left ear and walk away, she'd stop, look like she's thinking, go back to my dog and touch my dog's right ear, then all of her paws, then her tail, then pet her head.
If she pets one of my dog's heads, she has to go pet the other one's head. Is she rubs on dogs' head twice, she has to pet the other one's twice. If she loses count of how many times she has done something to one thing, she will "start over" and say, pet one dog's head 23 times, then pet the other dog's head 24 times, she'd have to go pet the other dog's head one more time for the same amount of time.

I really want to know what's wrong.