Does my son have TS as well as aspergers?

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This am before my 7 yo "Caleb" went to school he said "Dad' I have a problem"- when I pursued it , he said "when I think of the sound "er" I sometimes blurt it out and can't seem to stop doing it"
I have never witnessed this occurrence and think it may happen when he's in school. Is it a symptom of torrettes or is it caused by his autism? Any help would be greatly appreciated. _ paul

I have Aspergers and that has never happened to me. My cousin has Tourettes and that sounds a lot more like him than me. He isn't one of the "movie version" who randomly screams obsenities, he just makes a noise and jerks his head. Don't know if that helps but that's my 2 cents worth. (why is it 2 cents, anyway? Why not 4, or better yet 5?)

EMTkid
Thanks for the reply. With the current status of inflation- should be at least a quarter's worth_ Paul

It sounds like a tic as opposed to a stim, to me too, because of it's uncontrollable nature. That said, I vaguely remember reading on here, somewhere that you need more than one tic to be labeled with Tourette's, and I think they have to have a particular frequency of occurence. I think you can have ASD and a tic without also having Tourette's. I also vaguely recall that it is a common co-morbid. It might be a spectrum too, and maybe it has a direct relationship with the same parts of the brain. Just conjecture there.

I had a tic growing up where I would involuntarily shrug my shoulders, but I did not have any others and I did not do it very often. I never told anybody about it because I suspected it was atypical, but I was unsure. I also knew my parents would either dismiss it or it would create a big drama. I would ask him in a low key way if there are any other involuntary actions that he does that he cannot help, just to get a better idea of where everything stands.

Wow, what an intelligent reply. You are a great resource and I look forward to future replies. THANK YOU = Paul

I don't know if this is statistically valid, but some of the people I know with Tourette's also have a dx of autism. I think it may be a fairly common co-morbidity.
J.

My son has tics, but does not have TS. His tics are not vocal ones, but tend to involve jerking movements in his face, shoulders, and most recently, his leg. He can control it for a period of time, but the resulting discomfort he feels usually leads to him giving in to the "urge." For him I think it is a comorbidity of the rest of his unique neurology, but I do not think it is a separate issue, nor do I believe it is TS.

The dx criteria for TS is (though it may have changed with new DSM?)

• both multiple motor tics and one or more vocal tics must be present at the same time, although not necessarily concurrently;
• the tics must occur many times a day (usually in bouts) nearly every day or intermittently over more than 1 year, during which time there must not have been a tic-free period of more than 3 consecutive months;
• the age at onset must be less than 18 years;
• the disturbance must not be due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g. stimulants) or a general medical condition (e.g. Huntington's disease or postviral encephalitis).

Hope this helps!