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10 Ways to Respect Children & Adults with Tourette Syndrome: No. 8

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. 8:

Caring enough to educate yourself about what Tourette’s Syndrome is.

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

This is my 12-year-old son. He was diagnosed when he was in 3rd grade. We live in a small town in Texas. Hunter at that time had some very violent neck jerk tics. He was in a lot of pain. The doctors had him on some heavy-duty meds that made him so very tired. He slept during PE, recess and free periods at school. They allowed him to sleep in the nurse’s office. Hunter maintained his A-honor roll status throughout all of this. Our school administrators sought out help to understand Hunter and his new needs. They found speakers to come to our school and explain to Hunter’s classmates what Tourette Syndrome was and how it affected Hunter. They fully embraced Hunter.

I am forever grateful to our school for this. Our church raised money during VBS and gave it to the TSA. All VBS shirts had a teal ribbon printed on them. Our community brought awareness about TS, and awareness brings education, and education helps eliminate judgement. For this, I am grateful. It has made life so much easier for Hunter. We have had teachers attended workshops to understand kids with TS, ADHD, OCD and other co-morbids. They wanted to do this. They sought out these workshops.

Look for No. 7 tomorrow. And in case you missed the ones that came before, here’s a list:

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