Thanks for sharing your story. My ds has always been a little quirky but nothing seemed too off-kilter until he started with the eye blinks probably around 3 years ago. They got bad as his seasonal allergies started ramping up then kind of went away. They'd come back again when he was getting ill also. Then they'd go away. Then they came back and he started the small grunt/moan that followed the blink. That continued on and off (although mainly on and mostly at home) for around a year before the pediatrician gave the diagnosis. Until that time they were still considering them transient tics.

I'm assuming his giftedness has helped him coast by until now but now that things are getting more writing-intensive he's having more difficulties compensating. We don't have a 504 at this point and I hadn't realized that Tourette's was covered under IDEA but after reading that article I'm definitely going to work to have more things in place for him next year.

I did email the pediatrician and ask to see the more Tourette's-specific pediatrician again figuring that should be a non threatening place to start and we'll see what she says. Who knows how long it will take to get in there. I was told the developmental pediatrician could take a year to get an appointment. Yikes!