Movements: tics, choreiform, adventitious, OCD

[otksmama]

I'm not sure what they are...tics, OCD, adventitious (dr k first mentioned this), or choreiform. But I'm curious if any others have children with similar behaviors...

He touches things. Sometimes with his whole hand, sometimes just one finger. Even hot pans.

He gestures (as in "come here" or pointing to something of interest) while looking at the gesture.

Lining up tips of his fingers, palms facing him.

Looking at his hand, palm-side.

Holding onto something, like stroller handles, monkey bars, bicycle handles and quickly releasing and grabbing again

Even when something is not in his hand, he will loosely make a fist but barely open and close it

Dragging top sides of feet on ground when walking

Hopping, sometimes while looking at feet lined up beforehand

Biting objects

Touching objects to his tongue

Fingers in mouth

Laying face down on floor and rolling back and forth. I'm pretty sure it's a pleasure inducing thing, so I've encouraged him to do this in his bedroom. But he does it pretty much every time he feels the urge to urinate...the he'll stop whatever he's doing and lay down. He continues this for 20-30 minutes then he'll hop up and go to the bathroom.

Anyone else seen these? Any explanations for them?

[rowingmom]

We did not have these, but they sound very similar to the movements recorded in the videos of Sammy Maloney.

[momindc]

We've not seen these movements, but along these lines, on addition to my DD's motor tics, she's also constantly doing cartwheels and flips, and likes to lay on her back with her feet in the air. Anyone else dealt with these types of movements? Not sure if they're tics or what.

[otksmama]

Rowingmom, where can I see this video? All I can find are bits of it that were shown on the today show. Do you know which ones were similar?

[nicklemama]

My sons adventitious/chorea like movements move from his feet to his head. They literally seem to roll upward with this snake like or hula like movements ending in his head rocking back and forth. It's hard to explain. They are not jerky at all. Dr K called them adventitious movements. If walking, he would skip once and then they would roll upward.

[T_Anna]

My son has this finger flex like Val Kilmer in Top Gun (where he rolls coins back and forth) or in Real Genius...yes, I'm a product of the 80s.

 

He also has a movement when he's lying down (couch bed) and he keeps adjusting his pelvis as if he's just getting comfortable....took us a while to realize that it was so repetitive since it seems so natural, got worse when he was off Diflucan or skipped a dose. He had one when he would pray where he would literally roll his whole body up, but he stopped praying (scrupulocity was our first OCD clue), he stopped praying so we haven't seen that in a long long time. He has a neck roll, but it isn't as reliable as the couch one.

 

T.Anna

DS15

Edited August 21, 2013 by T.Anna

[rowingmom]

We've not seen these movements, but along these lines, on addition to my DD's motor tics, she's also constantly doing cartwheels and flips, and likes to lay on her back with her feet in the air. Anyone else dealt with these types of movements? Not sure if they're tics or what.

 

Before treatment DD used to seek motor sensory stimulation constantly. She was always hanging upside down, off chairs, off swings, spinning in circles etc. Life just seemed better moving in circles or upside down. She has never been coordinated enough to do cartwheels, but I'm sure those would have been good too. Even as a baby she would do as many of these things as she was capable of. I don't think they were all tics, although the summer before she started abx she did develop a spinning tic where she would have to spin around every so often while walking anywhere. For I while I just thought she was happy with life, but after a bit it became obvious that she had to do it. Not sure if it was a complusion though. I didn't know at the time about the premonitory sensations that go along with ticcing and didn't think to ask her about it.

[rowingmom]

Rowingmom, where can I see this video? All I can find are bits of it that were shown on the today show. Do you know which ones were similar?

 

This is the one I was referring to:

 

 

Just the placement of his feet in the clips of him walking, the way he has to adjust before he can move on, made me think of the movements you mentioned when referring to your son. The contemplation and readjustment before moving - just brought Sammy's video clip to mind.

 

These movements do not look like the Tourette's-like ticcing we are used to. The ticcing we see are quick movements, usually a single movement, rarely a combination, with premonitory sensations, usually done with no thinking. I think there is really no contemplation involved. DD says she gets a tingling sensation in an area of her body (ie her mouth) which won't go away without doing the tic (stretching her mouth wide). After she does the tic, the sensation resolves, until it happens all over again. DD's ticcs are usually the same movement, over and over, with varying lengths of time in between, lasting for days or weeks and then on to another one which would last days or weeks. ie, facial grimace, or mouth stretch, or eye rolling, or shoulder shrugging, or arm pumping, or neck jerking. We had some vocals as well.

[qannie47]

My ds when his episodes are at there worst, we will see the repetitive movements. They ranged from the head to toe "hula-hoop" movement, spinning with his arms stretched out open wide, lots of falling getting back up and starting over again. A popular one for him was running up the same three steps over and over again until he would fall backward, off the stairs, get back up and do it again. One time I watched him do this for over an hour straight. He was so exhausted when he was done he looked like a zombie. I actually recorded part of it. repetitive cartwheels and handstands show up from time to time. This is the typical episodic stuff with my ds. He is in Karate. The amazing thing was that even when in an episode, he was an excellent student. I think the movements are similar and served as a relief for him so he was able to pull himself together enough to get through the class....then explode when he got home.

[Hrosenkrantz]

A mild form of verbal ticcing for my son, one we can live with, is him repeatedly going "huh, huh. huh". At their worst, its tourette's style screaming.

We just filled a prescription for anti-tic medicine Tenex; my husband refers to it as the "anti-freakout medicine." We have not used it, and probably won't unless the ticcing/movements make our son unable to attend school...