yale global tic severity scale

[sarahhinton70]

I have filled in one of these to the best of my ability for my daughter, anyone got any info on what the end scores mean? Its just a number and theres no key with the questionaire

[catherinem]

It's probably best to do this with a TS consultant - I had a score of 70something, it just shows how bad your tics are - Did you do it just by watching your daughter or asking her about the tics?

Are you based in the midlands?

[sarahhinton70]

I'm in Kidderminster and i've filled it in just on observation, she refuses to talk about her tics, still in denial I think. I gave her a score of 45

[catherinem]

When I first started with tics I often denied their existantance so there would be conversations that go like this, bearing in mind like now I ticced constantly, about once a second -

Form tutor - Catherine, are you OK? Any problems (head shake to confirm the negative)? Do you twitch at home?

Me - No Miss, I'm ok.

Later....

My mother - Do you twitch like that at school?

Me - no.

or a conversation with a classmate...

Oi Mosey, why do you pull funny faces (kid stretches face like me) blink and sniff?

Me - What do you mean? I don't do anything.

The thing is when you look in the mirror I can't see myself tic.....

The thing is with the Yale Severity Scale, there's stuff that you wouldn't see or notice, I mean would anybody notice me wiggle my finger like a little worm, would they notice me twist my foot inside my shoe while walking, bum cheek clenching, saliva swallowing, finger sniffing etcc...etc.. not to mention mental coprolalia or some ocd stuff. Who knows what's in her head.

I run the nearest support group, there are some others from around your parts, we're meeting on the 30th Jun in Brum city centre, you might find it helpful. Don't force the issue with your daughter, when I was 11 and started ticcing I felt like a freak, if had been diagnosed my mother would have been eating, sleeping and breathing TS and wrapping me up in cotton wool and making me feel like a freak rather than kicking my butt to get me to practice. At least from my silly point of viw at the time is that if it was a twitch caused by stress whatever was stressing me out will soon cease to stress me out and therefore stop thus rendering me "normal". Can you see the logic?

[EsJaySea]

The paper I first found the reference to the tic scale in only mentions the first 50 points (ie not the 'impairment' part). A combined severity score for motor & vocal tics is then on the scale of 0-50; the paper states that a score of >15 indicates clinically significant tics.

I filled in in based on observations of my son & repeated it after a year - this is what I used to convince the Dr he was getting worse. & I intend to do it again this summer to try to convince my son that he's now getting better!