Tourette's

Many neurodevelopmental conditions can often exist together, but each can be treated in different ways.  The picture below illustrates how the conditions overlap.  Please use the drop down menu to view other conditions.

What Is A Tic?

A motor tic is when a part of the body makes a quick, sudden, uncontrollable movement.  Tics can affect any part of the body such as the face, shoulders, hands or legs and may happen many times.

A vocal tic is an involuntary sound made over and over again, for example throat clearing or a humming noise.  Most tics are mild and do not cause much upset to everyday life.  However if they are frequent and severe they can affect many areas of a child’s life. Tics do not occur when asleep. Sometimes a child can ‘hold’ the tics in for a period of time but then have an outburst of tics later.  This is not done on purpose.

Transient Tic Disorder

This is when a child has tics that happen almost every day for more than four weeks.  It is very common and affects almost one in four children at some point.

Chronic Tic disorder

This is when tics have been happening for over a year.  It is much rarer and affects between 1-2% of children at some stage. Rarely, a child will go on to develop Tourette’s Syndrome.  This is the rarest type of tic disorder and occurs when there are both motor and vocal tics which gradually become more and more complicated and cause significant problems in the child’s life.  Most children who have a tic disorder do not have Tourette’s syndrome.