Does this sound like tourettes to you?

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Ok here is my question? Does any of what I am about to describe sound like tourettes to you?

My son (10 AS) has for as long as I can recall done this head scratching thing, sometimes its as simple as just raising his hand to his head to touch his head and thats it, he will also from time to time stammer/stutter at the start of his sentences (occasionally he gets so frustrated by this he gives up saying what he was going to say) I have asked a speachy about the stammering and because it doesn't happen all the time she didn't think much of it. He also grabs at himself all the time either down the front or back of his pants, picking his undies- not just normal boy stuff I have an older son who has also commented. He has been threw throat clearing stages then to coughing.
Because of the throat thing I had him looked at for asthma (this runs in our family) He also used to do this eye rolling thing (when stressed) I had him looked at for absence seizures (we have epilepsy in the family to) he now also when stressed does this whole body shudder/contortion type thing (kind of how you would feel if spiders were running all over you). My docs have agreed he should be assessed for a tourettes co-morbid the state tourettes association also say it sounds like tourettes . But these people dont have Aspergers my son does, you guys do, so I wanted to hear from you. Is this just Aspergers (do you think) or do you agree it sounds like more ie, tourettes as well? I havent listed all he does (that isnt NT ) because he is AS and he does have the usual stims and ocd behaviours. My son is on anti depressant meds for anxiety, these were going on before-well before the meds. He isnt even aware he does half of them except the more obvious, like the body shudder, he says when asked why he does this " I have a tingle and I have to do it it makes me feel better".

Thanks people

Yep, it might be tourette's. Might be wise to contact a neurologist.

Thanks for the reply. I noticed in the bottom of your post, it says tentative tourettes dx, can I be rude and ask about your tics/ symptoms?

I spent a lot of time online researching Tourette's when my son developed tics a few years ago. He started by rolling his tongue and hooting and then doing these little side steps when he was walking. It progressed to whole body jerks and this neck thing where his head would snap back and his neck would get sore. He would also grimace.The pediatric neurodevelopment doc asked me to video tape him and said they were the worst he had seen. My son had been on Risperdal because his sensory sensitivity was so severe and tardive dyskinesia was a concern. Unfortunately the doc was in the process of relocating back to his home state, so he had to make a decision without seeing the results. He took him off the Risperdal and put him on guanfacine. The tics faded but to this day I'm not sure if they are still there and suppressed by the guanfacine or just gone. Now that I'm done babbling, I can tell you what I learned online about Tourette's is it has to meet 3 criteria (1) vocal (2) body (3) last longer than one year. Some kids just grow out of them. Since tics are not present constantly a tape to show the doc might help. I distracted my son by putting in a movie and then taped him while he was watching it, otherwise he was too interested in the camera. I needed him focused on something else. I guess the length of time they occur is the most deciding factor.

Simple motor:

Blinking, snorting, twinging, hand-jerking

Complex motor:

Neck-jerking, false-steps, Grimacing

Simple vocal:

Throat-clearing

Complex vocal:

Stutter, Stammer, "Shut Up!", "F***!", "S***!"

This is a resource I'm using. There is also a forum there which I have just joined which you can join in if you want to talk more.

yes does sound like a tic disorder or tourettes, but ive noticed a lot of autistics do this and its seen as OCD also, but from your discription, def look into tourettes or at least a tic disorder. Do you notice his meds make his tics worse? i cant take any meds even little tylenol, motrin, anything even childrens everything makes me touretty haha and my tourettes is more mild thankfully.

Yes, Age mentioned OCD already.

Tourette's and obsessive compulsive disorder are today understood as closely intertwined. From what you told it sounds like you son might have tics and obsessive/compulsive symptoms.

Many with TS feel that to some/many of their tics there's an obsessive-compulsive component, they may have classic OCD too or just symptoms of it.

For example, some tell that they have the tic and feel they need to for example, touch certain body parts or moving (or having certain tics when picking up certain things or being in a certain environment), touch things, touch them several times... there's countless things like these.

But they can also have very classic OCD symptoms, such as needing to count things, needing to check things and so on.

Researchers have found that there's a certain relationship between tics/TS and OCD symptoms.