Son started "weird" movements

amother

OP ↓

Sat, Sep 21 2024, 11:19 pm

My son just started 3rd grade. He's 8.5.

We've always known he was "spacey", but he seemed to get by and do very well. He's smart, B"H.

However, we just went to back-to-school night and the rebbi called me over and said that he makes really weird movements during davening. This is the first I'd ever heard of this. He sent me a video the next day and yes, OMG, my precious son who does not do this at home (except when playing "violently" with imagination) was moving in really weird movements while davening. He looked very strange.

Where on earth do I start? I sent it to his pediatrician and we have a meeting to talk next week, but I am freaking out.

TIA.

amother

Hibiscus ↓

Sat, Sep 21 2024, 11:55 pm

amother OP wrote:

What kind of movements? What do you mean except when he plays violently?

Perhaps they are tics?

amother

Topaz

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 1:12 am

Is it happening at home too?

I and a kid like that but it was happening at home. It was PANDAS. Cured by abt a month of antibiotics..(btw I'm not the big pandas person on ima!!)

But please take him to your pediatrician to start a process of ruling more dangerous things out.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 1:13 am

amother Hibiscus wrote:

What kind of movements? What do you mean except when he plays violently?

Perhaps they are tics?

So...he reads a lot at home. Silently, "normally".

He watches 1 hr on Sundays and Fridays without movement.

The only time he does something remotely like what I saw on the video is when he plays with lego or blocks or any of his toys --- he likes to play violently and has things explode. He makes the movements and sounds of things exploding.

I sent my pediatrician the video and she also thinks they are tics. She told me they are common, often start between 5-10, and come and go. She said she usually ignores them. However, she wrote this to me erev Shabbat and I just saw now, so I will call her office on Monday.

So... how common are tics? Does anyone have any advice?

Success10

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 1:50 am

So it looks like he's playing with toys during davening? It sounds like spacing out, just with an added lack of social awareness that others are watching. If it seems truly involuntary, it could be tics, which can affect ADHD type kids and often pass on their own.

amother

↑ Hibiscus ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 1:52 am

amother OP wrote:

Tics are very common. Especially boys from age 5-10. They usually go away after a while, but if there several tics, it may be something more.
There is a book that you can get on Amazon that has remedies. It didn't work though for my son.

amother

Jean

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 3:29 am

Maybe he's just playing in his imagination during davening because he's bored, that would be my first thought. Did you ever ask him what he was doing when he plays like that? If he says he doesn't know then maybe it's involuntary, but maybe he can explain, like he's shooting imaginary aliens or something.

ETA; as a kid, I used to play imaginary games in class when I was bored and I'm sure it looked weird but I thought no one noticed. It was not tics but might have looked like it.

amother

Black

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 3:43 am

If this is ONLY during davenning then he is bored. If it is all the time and no clear relationship to one type of activity (other than screens, which can trigger such things) then it may be medical.

It may be that he finds school davenning boring and so goes into his own head and doesn't realise he is acting out his thoughts.

I would speak to him first. He is likely to be embarrassed and stop if this is just confined to one lesson.
If he doesn't realise, then he needs a diary of when this is occurring and medical input.

Roots

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 8:02 am

My son had a few tics when he was in lower elementary school. He had this tekufa of clearing his throat every few seconds or minutes. The dr said to ignore and it went away after few months. The next year he ahd this crazy blinking thing always blinking hard and dr said to ignore it and it went away. The third was going to the bathroom every few minutes -even during the night. We obviously ran blood and urine tests and BH everything was fine. Again the dr said to ignore and after a few months it passed BH
Sometimes these things are just developmental and they go away on their own

amother

Lemonlime ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 8:17 am

My son had an eye tic and after several tries at ruling out different things, one smart pediatrician tested for mycoplasma and treated with two weeks of zithromax. That, the eye tic b"h resolved. Although I still continued to pursue different means of intervention to also resolve his silly behavior which I then realized were also resulting from these high titers. Silly behavior has b"h also finally resolved.

amother

↑ Lemonlime

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:55 am

amother Burlywood wrote:

Why don’t you just ask your son what he was doing? He might answer that he was daydreaming about playing because he was bored

I wouldn't bring his attention to it. Could make it worse.

amother

↑ OP

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:41 am

amother Burlywood wrote:

Why don’t you just ask your son what he was doing? He might answer that he was daydreaming about playing because he was bored

I asked my son if he ever moves around during davening, and he said, "No way!"

A day later, I asked him if he ever has to move around during class because he feels like it's too hard to sit still. He looked at me and said, "Why do you ask?" I said I heard that sometimes class can feel long and some kids like to move around. So he said, "Yes, sometimes I do this" and he got up and moved to the side, moved his arms, and sat down.

That would be okay, but that was NOT what I saw in the video. In the video I saw a lot of moving and shaking and repetitive hand motions, all done sitting down. I think he has no idea what he's doing.

In my gut, I do not think I should show him the video.

amother

Almond

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:55 am

amother OP wrote:

Help him. But do NOT show him the video. He will never trust adults again.

Good Friend

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:59 am

My daughter had some tics. She also denied them, explaining that she was doing those actions for practical reasons. (They clearly were tics she was just embarrassed)

We did this program which helped a lot.

https://www.tichelper.com/

This ended a few months ago. But recently she started a new one so I guess we’ll go back to the program again.

It’s an online program that you do at home with the child that basically guides them to identify the tics and what triggers them and choose another subtle action to do whenever they feel the urge and to continue that until the urge passes. This anct should be one that makes it impossible to do the tic. After a few days the urge comes less and less often. For example if the person has an urge to shrug their shoulders the subtle action could be to keep their arms by their sides and press them straight down as if they’re trying to reach as low as possible. That’s not noticeable and it’s impossible to shrug while doing so.

Hope this helps.

amother

↑ Hibiscus

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 2:49 pm

Good Friend wrote:

I'm interested in this. I think by my son it's tourettes. Does this actually help?