Hi, I am a first-year teacher in 4th grade and I have a student with tourettes and ADHD. He is a great kid, very sweet and smart and wants to succeed. His family is also very helpful. The problem I’m having is that his outbursts, which of course he can’t control, are really disturbing the other kids in my class. They don’t understand why he’s not getting punished for making noises and it is also very distracting for them when they are doing seatwork or taking a test. I can’t punish him, because he cannot control the noise-making. Does anyone have any suggestions?Thanks! Amy
Re: Tourettes
: Of course you can’t punish him. I would certainly agree with Andrea that this deserves to be explained to the other children in your classroom. Otherwise, it will impact heavily on them. Have you actually gotten this far into the school year without other parents calling you up and wanting to know what’s going on and without the kids protesting mightily?I admire your ability to deal with this poor child. Tourette’s can be a significant issue. Is this child not on medication for his issues? I understand there is debate around offering medication to ADD/ADHD children but I’ve never heard of a Tourette’s child being in a regular classroom and not taking medication.If he’s on medication and his Tourette’s is still manifesting like this, he’s not on the right medication or the right dose. His parents and his doctor deserve to know that.: tourettes and ADHD. He is a great kid, very sweet and smart and
: wants to succeed. His family is also very helpful. The problem I’m
: having is that his outbursts, which of course he can’t control,
: are really disturbing the other kids in my class. They don’t
: understand why he’s not getting punished for making noises and it
: is also very distracting for them when they are doing seatwork or
: taking a test. I can’t punish him, because he cannot control the
: noise-making. Does anyone have any suggestions?: Thanks! Amy
Re: Tourettes
Hi, Amy…. Check out the link below to the Tourette’s Syndrome Assoc. Ask for their materials list…. they have an excellent video for kids about TS. It’d be a great “lead in” to a class discussion. My experience has always been that, the more understanding the kids have of any disabling condition, the more patient they become. The TSA offers wonderful resources and materials. (I have bought all of them for our district’s Parent Lending Library.) Good luck !!!
Re: Tourettes
I don’t know where you live, but if it is doable, the Tourette Syndrome Association will also do an inservice for the class. This would relieve you of the burden of figuring out how to explain it. Maybe you could work this out with the parents. It’s a hard thing to guage—my child has TS but it is relatively mild and only one or two of his classmates’ parents know about it. Still one of them has complained to me about kids (read their kid) being upset that my son isn’t getting into trouble for some of the things he does. I haven’t wanted to draw attention to it too much and haven’t had an inservice done because his tics can be triggered by certain things and there is an off chance that if the kids figure it out they will taunt him with the triggers. (We had a very unpleasant summer camp experience along those lines.) About medication—some of the TS medication is very heavy duty with a lot of adverse side effects so parents and doctors are often reluctant to try them unless desparate. Milder medications like SSRIs may not be that effective in treating the symptoms. Many people like a book called Teaching the Tiger for dealing with TS kids—although frankly I found it bit mystifying. There is also a helpful website by Dr. Leslie Packer—I think it’s something like Tourette Syndrome—Now What, but I can’t find the URL. Perhaps you can find through Google. It has a lot about tourette’s in the classroom. (There may also be a link to it on the TSA website provided by another poster.)Hi, I am a first-year teacher in 4th grade and I have a student with
: tourettes and ADHD. He is a great kid, very sweet and smart and
: wants to succeed. His family is also very helpful. The problem I’m
: having is that his outbursts, which of course he can’t control,
: are really disturbing the other kids in my class. They don’t
: understand why he’s not getting punished for making noises and it
: is also very distracting for them when they are doing seatwork or
: taking a test. I can’t punish him, because he cannot control the
: noise-making. Does anyone have any suggestions?: Thanks! Amy
Why don’t you ask his parents if it would be okay to explain to the other students why this child is making noises? I suspect that if you explained it to the children in a positive way they would be a lot more understanding and it would be easier for the child who, after all, cannot control his tics, even though he surely knows they can be annoying to others.Andrea