To
go back to the beginning of the "Telling People About Your Difference"
section, click
here
To
see letters from kids who heard about other kids' differences, click
here
To
read what kids think about others finding out about their differences,
click
here
To
see actual presentations, poems, and essays that kids have done about
their differences click
here
Stevie
Begg
Stevie
wrote this for his Grade 6 class when he was just 11 -- here's what
his proud mother has to say about him:
"He
likes who he is even when he is at his lowest moments he would not take
away his TS, he can give a class presentation with very little help
from me, and he can field questions and explain his own personal problems.
He has no problem walking up to a person in the Mall and telling them
to Stop Staring Because he has Tourette’s syndrome and can’t
help what ever Twitch he is doing. I am very proud of him..."
I'm
proud of you TOO, Stevie -- keep on ticcing, bigguy, and keep on teaching
the world! Maybe someday you'll have MY job!
Tourette’s
Syndrome
By Stevie Begg
Tourette’s is a neurological
disorder that causes tics like squinting, eye rolling; shoulder shrugging,
or nasal sounds. A person's tic's can be worse if they are stressed.
A person can’t control their tics without medication, and as
you get older you are able to control the tics for longer periods
of time. Tourette’s Syndrome is usually diagnosed by age 7.
There needs to be one motor tic and one vocal tic for more than six
months to be diagnosed with the condition.
The different kinds of tics are:
Vocal tics, Coprolalia: uncontrolled outbursts of profanity. Echolalia:
uncontrolled repeating of someone else, yourself, or a noise you hear,
and Motor tics: head jerking, arm twitching, and jaw cracking. With
Tourette’s you also have emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Most of you may not have heard
of Tourette’s before, but my brothers and I have it. It doesn’t
hurt me but it makes me tired and sometimes it interrupts me when
I am trying to do things like my homework. Tourette’s is when
you do the same thing over and over again. It’s just like a
mosquito bite and you just need to scratch it, or a really big sneeze
that you can’t hold in.
How I feel about Tourette’s,
which I have, is that it’s very difficult to live with. But
what I do like about Tourette’s is that it makes me a unique
individual.
