welcome back to Fox 8 News in the
morning for parents monitoring their
child's behavior can be difficult
especially when determining what
behaviors should be checked out by a
medical professional this morning we are
talking about childhood ticks and
Tourette's and we are getting some
insight from dr. Katrina Lindsey who is
a pediatric psychologists over at Akron
Children's Hospital a local family
dealing with Tourette's Katy and Nellie
Coburn ladies welcome
you are beautiful in the same family
first of all let's just start from the
very beginning first of all the tics
interactive what's the difference doc
yes
so tic disorder is when you only have
what would be motor tics or only vocal
tics so motor tics or muscle movements
and vocal tics or sounds Tourette
disorder is when you have both motor
tics
and vocal tics okay mom know your
daughter has it what talk about the
sides how did you know that that
something wasn't right
well when Katie was about to enter third
grade she did start to exhibit some kind
of strange behavior but it was it was
mostly brought on by some twitching in
her face so she would squint your nose
Archer eyebrows and her forehead would
get wrinkly and I thought she was trying
to kind of itch her nose without
actually itching it it was kind of
seemed like normal behavior for a
seven-year-old at the time did you think
was going on at the time I just thought
that you know she was being a normal
seven-year-old I really didn't think
that it was anything to be concerned
about at first but when it kept going
and my husband and I started to get a
little bit concerned when she started to
have more of a motor tic which was her
arm jerk so once your arm started a jerk
and her shoulder started to shrug we
knew something wasn't right and we
immediately took her to a neurologist at
Akron Children's Hospital Katie what was
going on with you at that time what were
you thinking what was going through your
mind when this was happening
I didn't really know what it was and but
I didn't know that no matter what I had
my family you had your family you had
your support system yeah
how you dealing with it now well now I'm
doing really good and it's not I was
able to more control it and I am able to
kind of live my life now yes yes I said
you you want to be an engineer when you
grow up in anything doctor do you can
you grow out of it or how does this
thing progress yeah so some people grow
out of it and it seems like that magical
time is adolescence but other people
adolescence actually causes it to get
worse so it's a chronic diagnosis so a
lot of times we treat it with chronic
management just learning how to live
with it there's no medicine involved
right right there is actually no
specific medicine for tick and
Tourette's so behavioral intervention
really is seen as treatment line one
okay what what brings it on is it is it
like a nervous thing or why does it
happen is it maybe does it happen one
time it doesn't happen another time how
does it what do you feel more like it's
coming on well ticks are on and off but
I feel that I take more when I'm
stressed when you're okay okay so mom
would you try to do to keep her calm
well you know it's it's difficult
because there's a parent part of what we
learned through the C bit therapy at
Akron Children's Hospital is that we
really need to let Katie manage oh yeah
you know if she has any stress or
anxiety she learned great tools and
techniques to be able to manage that so
I have to actually be a little hands off
and ignore it just very difficult for
her because you guys you want to just
cut you know to take care and then kind
of cover it yeah yeah I understand you
learned about Akron Children's from Fox
8 News the more you actually saw the
doctor yes I did last year when Katie
entered sixth grade middle school stuff
for most children but it was especially
tough for Katie
I had just googled Tourette in the local
area to see if there were any new
programs and I found the story that you
all did last year at this time with dr.
Lindsay and another little girl and I
watched it with Katie and I said wow
look there is a new program at Akron
Children's we really need to explore
this so I literally called the hospital
the next day
I talked to dr. Lindsay and was able to
get into the program pretty quickly I
was very lucky for Akron Children's
Hospital to talk about that doctor we
were just designated as a center for
excellence which makes me this way that
means we're providing outstanding care
for children with Tourette disorder and
as see now it's kind of the bar for
everybody else we're actually the only
Hospital in Ohio to have that
designation the only ones in the Midwest
so if you have ticks will you progress
into turrets sometimes not all the time
yeah some people maybe just have a motor
tick their whole life yeah where other
people have met Tourette's right away
yeah so what does the future hold I I
will personally like to grow out of it
but if but if you can't you're just
gonna just have you have to deal with it
huh it's all it's all mental isn't it
Katie actually is a youth ambassador so
she yes mm-hmm yes she went to training
in Florida to really represent kids with
Tourette wow what a great honor that is
now have you enjoyed that um I just
started and I really love it honestly I
get to spread awareness yes and I get to
talk to the media and action and I get
to to talk to the public yeah fellow
teachers and students and the local
government you are going to be a great
ambassador I can see cause you're
beautiful you know a great ambassador
before we go how prevalent is this in
the populations yes
so tic disorders are actually considered
the most common pediatric condition
though they are more common than ADHD
and more common than anxiety most of us
experience tics throughout our life
that's incredible
just so to a lesser degree or the
universe is incredible all right well
good luck to you you're gonna do a
wonderful job I know you are that mom
thank you very much for coming doctor
thank you as well yeah really given us
some good information cuz parents could
be wondering what's going on with my
child and now the
yeah exactly