palilalia - Tourette's or just part of Aspergers...

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My son (7, Aspie) was recently diagnosed as having a tic disorder. He has multiple motor tics going on for about a year including: rapid blinking, nose crinkling/twitching, shoulder shrugging, mouth twitches, and a few others I'm not thinking of. Anyway, when he was diagnosed with the tic disorder two weeks ago, his developmental pediatrician asked about vocal tics and we said none that we knew of...she pointed out that he was repeating what he just said in a whisper, which we hadn't really noticed before then. Anyway, since then, this has been going on multiple times a day...he will say something like "Mario just jumped over the pipe and landed on a Koopa" followed by a barely audible "on a Koopa". If I understand what I've read, this is palilalia which is a complex vocal tic...does that mean he's probably got Tourette's or can the palilalia just be part of Aspergers even though he has multiple motor tics? Obviously we need to talk with his developmental pediatrician to be sure, but we don't go see her again until next year.

He might have had other vocal tics in the past, but not sure...he used to sniffle all the time, which was chalked up to allergies and he started Claritin which didn't seen to make a difference. Then he had a long period of time with little coughs, these too were attributed to allergies and later asthma, which asthma could have been the right answer as he also had wheezing...this palilalia is the first possible vocal tic without another, cause.

Dd 11 is also an aspie, with palilalia. Our neuropsych said it could be one of several things, the most likely being she started doing it to check and make sure she said what she meant to say(or process what she had said), and it's become a habit. It has lessened as she's gotten older, doesn't happen nearly as much as it did a couple yrs ago. I wouldn't think it's worth stressing over. That said, dd has very few tic-like behaviors, so that's just our experience with it.

I do repeat things sometimes... two reasons.

First one is because I just like the sound and feel of the word. I'm playing with it like you'd play with a toy.

Second one is because I'm listening to myself saying it, the audio equivalent of carefully examining something.

I do have some minor tics--nowhere near Tourette's level--but they tend to be more like jerking my head or making these high-pitched barking noises. Unrelated to my tendency to repeat things over and over.

Neither one is a sign of distress or brain freeze. I say--watch your kid, see if the kid is fine, and if the kid is fine, don't worry about it. Whether they're playing with sounds or taking a closer "look" at them, doesn't sound harmful to me, and if your mommy instinct says it's not, it probably isn't.

I have had Palilalia at various times in my own life, and I've never been diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome- only diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome a little over two years ago, now.
I'd say your son has Asperger's, but I wouldn't say Tourettes, just based on Palilalia. If I get nervous, I can have tics, myself, but I just have AS.
Hope I helped!

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An Asperger's man who has Autism Spectrum Disorder level 1- mild, with a sprinkling of Synesthesia.