I was reading over the forum, came across this thread and felt I, as an avid gamer who was "diagnosed" with TS at the age of 4, might have some insight that would prove useful.
As much as it pains me to say it, I will have to agree that playing video games can have an adverse affect on Tourette Syndrome. I, much like your child, mainly have an eye blinking tic. When I was younger my eye blinking was extremely pronounced, rapid and caused me great distress (I was nicknamed "twitch" throughout middle school). It was accompanied by neck twitching, facial twitches (often resulting in rashes from twitching my nose and mouth in undesireable ways) and a small amount of vocal tics (mostly grunts and throat clearing).
I was lucky that my mother had known what Tourette Syndrome was (her uncle had it and she knew it was hereditary) and that she was, for the most part, supportive (there were several occasions where she would get frustrated and say "just don't do it"). Her first incling was to take me to a behavioral therapist, because at the time (this is around 1994) drugs weren't very popular for treating Tourettes. I was originally offered Haldol and Clonidine; you can imagine how well those worked for me. After we decided that those drugs were not for me (the side effects were tremendous) I began regular therapy sessions. I was made to play Nintendo during the sessions in an attempt to place me in a farmiliar enviornment, by a therapist who knew nothing about Tourette Syndrome (I apologize for typing out Tourette Syndrome and not the ubiquitous "TS", i'm compelled to spell it out fully; it's kind of a OCD thing I have). All the while he would ask me questions about symptoms and what I, a pre-pubescent boy, thought caused them. Let's just say that: the combination of video games, an unfarmilliar enviornment, (I've always been afraid of anything that resembles a doctor) and probing questions extremely aggitated my Tourettes and caused me to become irratable during and after the sessions. For this I was put, incorrectly, into a support group for people with anger management issues; I have never been in a fight and am one of the most peaceful people on this planet.
I guess I should get to the point of this now: I will agree that TS is effected by video games and that for me it has always been a negative effect. However, the stress of having my games taken away almost always reproduced the same symptoms as playing the games themselves. While it might be in your best interest to limit, or even cut out, video games in order to manage Tourettes, I do have to caution that there is no sure fire way to treat Tourettes (not insulting your intellegence; i'm sure you already know that) and while it might help in the short term, your child will most likely have access to video games at a friends house. If he develops into a full blown gamer, it would most likely be in your best interest to cave in and give him the games. Stress issues have always had a more direct coorelation to tic severity and frequency than video games ever did, at least for me.
While this might not work for everyone (or even most people), I was able to use video games as a way to control, or as I like to call it "channel" my Tourettes. I would do this by focusing on the most annoying and prominent tic urges and then focus them somewhere else, such as: a facial tic that was highly visible and caused great distress I would then turn into a foot tick in which I'd tap my feet in time with a song in my head, or to some number sequence (i'd bring my big toe up on 1. place it in the middle on 2. and down on 3). You will be surprised at how naturally gifted at music, sports and reflex related activity people with Tourette Syndrome are. This "channeling" has also helped me to concentrate on a single tic that I know I could easily bear with and force out thoughts of more annoying and noticable tics. The mere thought of the tics that annoyed me the most would be enough to allow them to creep up on me, even after days/weeks/months without having done them, and force them back into some level of severity. I am not a therapist or psychologist, but these are things that helped me get over some particularly bad spells. While I have always had eye blinking tics, the rest of my symptoms have wax and wane over time and most of the non-blinking tics have diminished to the point where they are not noticable and cause me very little stress; or they have disappeared completely.
With that said: As I grew older, several of my "tics" have receded or disappeared completely. I am now able to play video games for several hours on end without having any real, or lasting issues with my Tourettes. I would classify my Tourettes when I was a child as "moderate, bordering on severe" (as I believe it is the reason why I have an acute astigmatism in my left eye, from constantly rubbing it with my hand) and my Tourettes today as "very mild".
Before deciding to take away his game system (unless he could care less about it, towhich I say: go for it), you need to think about the ramifications. Will he be frustrated and upset that his new favorite toy was taken away from him? Will he become insecure about his tics because they result in, what he/she sees as, punishment; this is often how I felt as a child in similar situations. Also, will it inevitably cause him to supress his urges which will only make the issue worse in the end (I suggest, at least at a young age, never supressing tics outright but instead "channeling" them to more managable tics; in a way similar to how I explained above).
It is late here and i'm sure I came off sounding condescending and ignorant, but if anyone wants to speak to someone who has experienced the good and bad of Tourette Syndrome and has come out of it no worse for the ware, please feel free to contact me personally and I would love to answer any questions you might have. I would especially love to hear from anyone with a child who is having trouble coping with Tourette Syndrome, because I have felt the pain and emberassment they are probably experiencing (I get teary just thinking about it) and would do anything I can to help aleviate their pain and supply them with peer guidance and an idea of what to expect as they get older. To their parents: I can offer you insight into what helped best for me as I was growing up and things I wish my parents, as supportive as they were, could have done better.
I'm glad to have joined this board and look foward to posting on it in the future. It is full of such a wealth of useful information and it makes me feel like I have somewhere to belong. It is hard to find another TS person in real life; I often feel marginalized and negatively stereotyped against, because of the common misperceptions associated with Tourette Syndrome in society/popular media.
I apologize for the length of this post. It's been a long time since i've discussed Tourettes with anyone (or any "entity") and I got carried away.
now please forgive me, there is an XBOX360 with my name on it.
