How the TA website helped Corey build his confidence.

Posted Thu 5th Oct 2017 at 08:46
by Corey and Sarah Knight

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My name is Sarah and I just wanted to share the impact that the Tourettes Action Website has had on our family.

My youngest son Corey was 10 years old in August. From Corey starting school they were picking up that Corey was having some difficulties in the school environment. When he was 6 years old he started with a tic. These escalated over a period of time to varying tics and then he started with vocal tics sniffing, and grunting. Just prior to ending his time in Infant School he was diagnosed with Tourettes and ADHD.

Over the last three years Corey has had various tics. Some stay longer than others. They come and go with varying degrees of frequency and strength. These can be exhausting and painful for Corey. Corey’s current tic means he can’t walk without kicking his backside and he shouts out loud making a noise. We went ice skating at the weekend and I was a bit worried that maybe I should have padded his bottom!!!! Thankfully all was well.

Corey has recently changed class and has been struggling with the new children in his class bullying him because of his tics, and also his class teacher not really having an understanding of his Tourettes. To the point she was telling him he could control the volume and frequency of his tics.

Corey was becoming quite distressed by the way he was being treated in school. I had previously looked at the Tourettes Action website and found it extremely helpful, however, I had thought Corey would be too young to take the information in. Now with him being a bit older and obviously finding it difficult to manage I decided to look at the website with him.

Corey’s first reaction when he saw the picture of the children was “oh my goodness do that many children have Tourettes, I thought I was the only one”? We looked at the leaflet for children and as he was reading through the questions he was saying to me “I ask myself these questions all the time, I think I’m weird, but I really can’t help my tics” The relief on his face was evident. We talked about getting a Tourettes passport to make life at school a bit easier.

Corey went to bed feeling happier, I went to bed feeling sad that he had to cope with so much negativity from people and he was only 10. Corey went to school as normal. Later that afternoon I got a call from his teacher. She’d called to tell me he’d been punched in the face by another boy in his class in a totally unprovoked attack. He’d dealt with it calmly and maturely. She then went on to say he’d come into school and met with his deputy head and his old class teacher and asked to do a talk to his class on Tourettes. He has then gone onto your website and used the information to create a 15 minute presentation on Tourettes and got his class to complete an exercise like the one shown on your site of trying to complete an activity whilst ticcing. His teacher observed that by the afternoon the children in his class were treating him differently.

Corey has done this independently and I am amazed and so proud that the information he has gained from your site has enabled him to take control in such a positive way to educate and try to change people’s reactions to his Tourettes.

Corey’s Experience of the website

My name is Corey and I am 10 years old. Having tics makes me feel like I am not a normal person. Other people make me feel sad and lonely with the way they react to my tics. I feel like I have fewer friends because of my tics. They make it harder for me to learn and make me tired at times. When me and my mum looked at the Website it taught me a lot about my tics and ways to understand and come to terms with them. I love sport and didn’t realise this could help with my tics.

What the website did was give me more confidence in myself instead of trying to hide my face at school I could explain properly what Tourettes was. I did a presentation to my class to explain all about Tourettes and how hard it is for me. This website made me able to change my life in positive ways. I am also going to be doing a presentation for the whole school so they can learn and hopefully treat people with Tourettes better.

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