emotional adjustment issues?
Carter et al. (2000) stated that individuals with TS have emotional and adjustment issues due to the lack of support and biased opinions expressed towards them by many individuals including their own guardians in some cases.
Wilkinson et al. (2001) suggest that guardians of children who have TS feel frustrated, and show poor parent-child relations due to stressful nature of TS as a disorder and the effects that it has on the individual and the family unit.
Sufferers state that their peers, family, and teachers express a lack of understanding toward them, and that they often feel misunderstood and frustrated because not many people understand their disorder (Carter et al., 2000).
How often have we heard adults relate stories about how a positive contact with a particular teacher changed their lives? Teachers have the power to foster positive feelings in children and help their students achieve their full potential in life (Tourette Syndrome Association Inc., 1993).
While fostering positive feelings in a child who has TS may seem to be difficult, it is by no means impossible. It may be difficult for peers and teachers at first to get past the twitches and yelps to the "real" child, but it will be worth the effort.
Children with TS, just as other children, have redeeming qualities that can be tapped as a source to bolster their self-image (Tourette Syndrome Association Inc., 1993). And when children with TS are treated with sensitivity and reject when others around him may offer nothing but ridicule and rejection, it will have an important positive effect on his life.
1. Provide positive and immediate feedback
2. Praise him for things you might take for granted with another child
3. Stress the positive things he does, not the negative
4. Stress how many spelling words he got "right" on the test, rather than how many he spelled wrong
5. Encourage one or two students who view the child who has TS as a friend to be his "buddies"
6. Teach the class to respect everyone of varying abilities and not to discriminate against anyone
7. Decrease the dislike or rejection a child with TS faces by educating students in the school about TS
(Tourette Syndrome Association of Ontario, 1993)
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Journal Article References:
Carter, A., O'Donnell, D., Schultz, R., Scahill, L., Leckman, J., and Pauls, J. (2000). Social and emotional
adjustment in children affected wtih Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome: Associations with ADHD and family
functioning. Journal Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41(2), 215-223.
Tourette Syndrome Association Inc (1993). Coping with Tourette Syndrome in the classroom.
Wilkinson, B., Newman., M., Shytle, R., Silver, A., Sanberg, P., & Sheenhan, D. (2001). Family impact of
Tourette's Syndrome. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 10(4), 477-483.