? re; Tics

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My son seams to have a couple of tics, one that he has always done ie head scratching (he doesnt even know he does this) and another that has been going on now for about 6 weeks so far, this one is a small cough, in some situations he does this quick small cough about ever 30 secs, it can be very annoying. Ive learnt to ignore it mostly. At least this cough is nicer than the last one, he used to do this really yuck throat clearing noise.

I've asked him if his throat is itchy he has said "No". I then asked why he keeps coughing he says, he doesnt know he just has a tingle and he feels like he has to.

I know some tics are "normal" with AS, when do they stop becoming just AS symptoms and turn into a co morbid?

How common is it to have tics as a symptom of AS?

How many of you or your children have tics and what kind of tics are they?

I know a hundred and one questions, lol, sorry I am just really curious and would love to have a slightly better insight into whats going on in his head. He has a few other spectrum friends roughly the same age(10) and I must say, the child he spends the most time with I havent noticed any tics with him, or any of the others for that matter but I don't spend that much time with the others so I don't know for sure.

Any way Thanks in advance, Aurea xoxo

Anyone?

I think developing a habit that is similar to a tic but within control, like a stim, is AS. Actual tics - no physical control, would be co-morbid. It's not uncommon; I know AS who are also Tourettes or have epiliepsy. You may want to rule the later out.

My is AS and has tourette's as well. His tics have changed over the years (he's 10 now) but we've had coughing, facial grimacing, throat clearing, hard blinking, climbing, physical tics with his hands. The climbing was the hardest one. Out of the blue he would climb anything high and that included the OUTSIDE of the staircase up two flights of stairs, the bookshelves in the library...still haven't figured out how he managed that one but we called him Spiderman because of it. It was exhausing. Right now we're left with the coughing, and the blinking. The climbing went away once we started meds (which we had to for his own safety).

My 8yr old Aspie has what appears to be "Tics" although he has not been diagnosed with tourettes the thought has entered my mind that maybe he has this also. In fact it has been numerous comments from friends of mine that have made me begin to wonder. He has odd facial expressions he pulls, he has one where he takes something and just taps or bangs it over and over, and then there are the noises....OH MY the noises. Growls, grunts, coughs, squeaks, there are several different ones. I am finding this one of the hardest things to deal with, more than any of the other things he does. Some days it is just constant noise and I mean constant noise for hours and hours, half a day, sometimes almost a whole day. If it is only for a while I can tune out, but when it goes on and on and he is jumping around and banging things and making this noise I feel so incredibly "on the edge!". Not only is it the irration of listening to it, it is the difficulty in speaking to him or anyone else in the house over the top of all the noise, it is the difficulty of getting anything done or anything running smoothly with all this going on. I would like to hear from other parents on this also.

P.s I should add that sometimes he seems able to stop, if I explain very clearly that "when you bang that on the table it is very very annoying to everyone else, please stop now" and he does. But the noises I cannot get him to stop, no matter how I ask he seems unable to stop himself from doing it.

^ That would be because the tics he can't control. My son is now on medicine for his tics so they've decreased drastically and when you ask him what it's like to have the vocal tics and someone asks him to stop, he'll say that it has to come out of his body or else it feels like he's choking. For some people, tics happen like breathing. They don't always know they're doing it but it's something their body has to do.

I had both the head scratching and the throat clearing/little cough tic every few secs/mins, as a child. My mother took me to an allergist, because she didn't know I was autistic. I had allergy drops to take and continued the tics.

I did eventually grow out of it. The only one I didn't grow out of is the eye blinking. I blink a lot and I blink hard. When I'm nervous, my eyes totally spazz.

My son's tics have become undeniable lately. I used to consider his extra vocalizations and gestures to be stims. However, within the past 2 or 3 months, I've come to realize that he can't control these very well and they are tics. He mostly controls them when we are out in public. At home, it can be quite bad (and loud).

I mentioned these to the doctor and he said it's "nothing". No help for me in that statement. I searched online and read that 1 out of 10 kids will have tics. Of those that do, a minority of those cases are Tourette's. A lot of kids will outgrow them or learn to control them before adulthood.