Review of Treatment of Tic Disorder – Part 1

I would like to share my experience, divided into 5 parts, in treating my child’s tic disorder.

Part 1. Discovery!

It was in 2016 when my first son was about 5 years old. He was about 47 months old at that time.

He often made a sound clearing his throat; I thought he as a sore throat.

I asked, “do you have a sore throat?” and he said, “I guess so.”

Hmmm? Does that mean he has a sore throat? Or not?

I made him drink warm water very often. I gave him everything that I heard it was good for the throat like, concentrated pear & balloon flower roots, honey, etc. However, there was no change. He did not have a fever as well.

So, I took him to a pediatrician; the doctor said his throat was fine. I took him to an ENT doctor; there, the doctor also said nothing was wrong.

My child kept making the wound more often.

I asked him, “why do you keep making the throat-clearing sound?”

He said, “I don’t know.” Sometimes, he didn’t even remember that he made the sound.

I didn’t know when he usually made the sound. Literally, he kept making the sound all day long.

It really distracted me. The sound was almost driving me crazy as if I was so much sensitive to sound.

Oh, wait…. could this be……possibly…’ tic disorder’?

As soon as I had come to think of the possibility of tic disorder, my heart was about to be broken.

I started online searching all day long and joined well-known online communities as well to check if my child has a tic disorder. Yes, I was right; my kid has a tic disorder.

What should I do?

I never expected anything like a tic disorder would appear to my child.

My mind was so complicated; I wanted to cry. What should I do…? (to be continued)

Review of Treatment of Language Developmental Disorder Part 1 – It is all my fault.

I was pregnant with my first child 6 years after marriage. I had my first child a little late because I thought it would be better to have a child after family life is stabilized and because both my husband and I were working. We were very happy when we knew that we had our first child. Well, our family life was not yet really stabilized, but it was because we spent as much as we earned.

Anyway, I was so happy that I was going to be a mother. However, I heard the very shocking news after I went through a complete medical checkup after the ballast of uterus passed. The amniotic fluid was lacking; my baby was much smaller; umbilical artery was only one line when it was supposed to be two; one side of the cerebellum was dented when it was supposed to have a butterfly look… The doctor gave me a doctor’s note that said another examination in depth was needed at a bigger hospital.

So, I visited a bigger hospital in Seoul and heard the same thing with a suggestion of taking the amniotic fluid test. This test must be done without anesthesia so that I had to sign the paper that entire responsibility is with me even if something was wrong with the fetus since the test was dangerous. I cried a lot at that time.

The result was the same. Doctors recommended us to have the genetic test and to get counseling what kind of disorders that our child would have, but we decided to take no more examination since our baby had to be born regardless of having a disability.

Then we moved to another hospital in Seoul where a child with a disability could be taken good care of. What I heard was that my might have a child with Dandy-Walker syndrome.

I have a very small body, and my younger sibling has an intellectual disability. I started thinking that my baby received bad genes from me and blaming myself.

Although the doctor told me that it is not a matter of genes, I had to go through so much difficult time blaming myself.

On the day I gave birth to my baby I delivered my baby by natural childbirth. The baby was 1.7 kg and had to be placed in an incubator. Although I had so much pain due to child delivery, I was just so sorry that my baby was too small. I was anxious because the kind of disability my child might have was still not clear.

The child had to go through various examinations; fortunately, the condition of the cerebellum was on the border of normal and abnormal.

I am writing this review to tell that child’s disability is not the mother’s fault. I now think that a child with a disability has a different but special ability.

My younger sibling ended up having an intellectual disability after having convulsions; I was so embarrassed having him when I was young. However, I now think he is so pure that every word he speaks out is right. I learn from him a lot now.

I will leave another review about things happened as I rear my child.

Review of Treatment of Developmental Disorder – 1. I noticed my child’s problem

I have two sons who are so out of control.

Even though they both are my children, they are totally different. One is like a puppy, clinging to me; the other is like a cat, doing things in his own way.

Since the pregnancy of my first child, I have been suffering from an emotional disorder. I temporarily overcame the emotional disorder after my first child was born and took good care of him to some extent until he was 3. He is somewhat smart and growing without a hitch.

The problem was my second child. He had to see his unstable mother ever since he was very young as the emotional disorder that I thought I overcame recurred.

He had to go to Daycare Center when he was 6 months old because I was a working mother; he seemed to have no problem with playing alone. Compared to the first child clinging to me way too much, I thought the second child was very docile; I felt there was no need to have playing time with him.

And I often had emotional outburst in front of him. Although I did not express my emotions directly to him, I cried and shouted out loud beside him who was staring at me. I was so out of mind that I couldn’t even worry about him.

One day, my anger that had been accumulated burst out at the first child’s small prank. I yelled out so loud; the second child who was just crawling ran and clang to me. The little baby was petrified and ran to me who yelled out, which was so sobering.

Since that moment, he freaked out and rant to me whenever he heard a loud noise or sound until last year when he was 3 years old.

I felt something was wrong with the second child when he was 2 and a half years old. He was supposed to respond, either giving a response or looking at me at least when he heard, but he rarely responded when I called his name. The result of his hearing test was normal. I really started feeling something was wrong. I first suspected him having autism, but I just waited because he was still so young.

As he became 3 years old, his teacher at the parent-teacher conference said to me, ‘he rarely responds to his name. Even if he does, that is only when he wants to respond. You need to make eye contacts with him a lot.’

Although I finished the conference with a smile, my heart was breaking. I was really confused when the feeling that something could be wrong with my child obtained objectivity. However, I braced myself as I listened to forums related to children’s developmental disorders among psychological forums of Korea Institute of Psycho-education.

What was so impressive to me was that my child will be a child with the developmental disorder as soon as I consider him that he has a developmental disorder.

I have made up my mind to do my best to make special memories with my child who stopped his own time of growing for about 3 years after he was born, which is different from other children. What made a deep impression on my mind was that my child will be a child with the developmental disorder as soon as I consider him that he has a developmental disorder.

I have made up my mind to do my best to make special memories with my child who stopped his own time of growing for about 3 years after he was born, which is different from other children.