Dysinhibition

"The phenomenon known as dysinhibition is characterized by difficulty consistently

inhibiting thoughts and/or actions. Inappropriate statements or behaviors very

frequently result from the student's inability to consistently apply "mental brakes".

Dysinhibition means that a child cannot stop himself from expressing behaviors,

thoughts, or displaying actions that someone else may more easily be able to control.

Such behaviors might be displayed as excessive silliness, being sassy, freeassociative

comments, emotional outbursts, contextual swearing, blurting out,

inappropriate comments explosive anger and oppositional defiance. Picture a sign

that says, "Don't Touch, Wet Paint". For many of us, the sign is an invitation to touch

the paint. We must fight the urge to do so if we are to obey the sign

and the norms of society. We must inhibit the very behavior that has been suggested

to us by the sign. We can easily recognize inhibition as being difficult for all children

when we think of puddles on the sidewalk that are just begging to be jumped into.

Inhibiting behaviors is challenging for all children but it presents a far greater

challenge for students with TS due to this neurological disorder. We must understand

that this is not purposeful disobedience but is merely a function of the brain that is

affected by the chemical imbalances that cause TS.

A young boy's teachers had a difficult time believing that every time this second grade

student said something inappropriate or acted in an impulsive manner that it was a tic.

It is helpful if we understand that Tourette Syndrome is more than tics, and recognize

that many of the difficulties a student is experiencing are "symptoms" rather than tics.

All too often we think of verbal and physical tics as being the only symptoms of TS.

Many students whether they have severe or mild physical and vocal "tics" also have a

significant difficulty with the invisible but extremely disruptive symptom of dysinhibition.

Therefore when this student is told that his turn on the computer is over and he makes

an inappropriate remark, it is indeed a symptom of his TS. In these instances, it is best

to ignore the symptom, but to include counseling support as an accommodation in

order to teach him techniques that will help him to recognize that his “brakes" do not

always work well. Over time, he may learn to substitute a more appropriate behavior

but since the actions are impulsive, it may require a great deal of practice and

patience on everyone's part." From http://www.tsa-usa.org/



I'm having a tough time with making Liam's teacher understand this piece of the puzzle. I get that she wants to be firm.
I want to cry and yell and tell her to be nice to my kid so that he won't hate school.