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10 Ways to Respect Children & Adults with Tourette Syndrome: No. 7

Hey everyone! I have decided to make a blog called “10 Ways to Respect Children and Adults With Tourette’s Syndrome”.

I feel like it’s not just important to tell others what shouldn’t be said, but that it’s also very important to follow this up with things that should be said and things that are helpful and supportive. This is important so that others without Tourette’s don’t shy away from talking about it all together, but instead know ways they can acknowledge Tourette’s by being helpful, supportive and accepting without being offensive.

So counting down toward No. 1, here is No. 7:

Teaching others (your friends, family, peers, co-workers) that different is OK.

From Heather, the mother of a child living with Tourette’s Syndrome:

I am always a bit apprehensive before parent/teacher conferences. Gavin turned 10 on Wednesday, 12/18 and was diagnosed at age 7. Last year, I met with Gavin’s 3rd-grade teacher and, of course, his TS came up. She said sometimes Gavin will jump to his feet in class. The first couple times it surprised her until she realized that it was a tic, so now when Gavin will jump to his feet, she tells the whole class to get up, jump around, turn around and sit down. For me, that was so wonderful to hear. She turned it into a teachable opportunity… to encourage his comfort and self esteem. She didn’t alienate him. She sort of made him to gauge to register “break time.” And that made Gavin a hero!

Look for No. 6 tomorrow. And in case you missed the ones that came before, here’s a list:

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RuthieP

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