“Tourette Syndrome: Classroom Implications” Tourette Syndrome, TS, is a neurobiological disorder that is characterized by involuntary movements and vocal tics, (Chaturvedi, Gartin, & Murdick, 2011). Most children with TS show symptoms between three and eight years old and increase in severity through puberty, then decrease over time. Often times, children that have TS also suffer from other disabilities, such as ADHD or OCD, (Chaturvedi, Gartin, & Murdick, 2011). Tourette Syndrome is most often in male students. Symptoms tend to range from simple to complex. Simple movements could consists of blinking eyes excessively, while a complex symptom is more severe such as violent head jerks. Typically symptoms are set on a scale based up the amount…show more content… This includes examination the classroom environment especially. It is important to examine social- emotional climate, physical arrangement, routines, and instruction and assessment to provide optimal support for these students with TS, (Chaturvedi, Gartin, & Murdick, 2011). For the social-emotional climate, it often deals with low self-esteem and social withdrawal, (Chaturvedi, Gartin, & Murdick, 2011). To combat this, the educator should focus on creating a class atmosphere that makes the child feel welcome and safe from being set apart from others. Classroom interactions among the students are necessary as well to make the student with TS feel as if they are a part of the class. The physical arrangement of the class should not be cluttered and should offer space for the child with TS to let off some energy, (Chaturvedi, Gartin, & Murdick, 2011). Also, it is important to consider placement of the child around other students. Some tics are more violent than others, and it would not be good to harm another student. Teachers should also provide a de-stressing place specifically for that child to cool off when becoming overwhelmed, because that is when a lot of tics occur, (Chaturvedi, Gartin, & Murdick,…show more content… I knew of some forms of tics, but not the wide range of frequency and severity. I feel that this article provided a lot of great information regarding this condition that will be very helpful for me as a future educator. I now understand that there are many aspects to inclusion of these students in the general education classroom. Not only do I have to modify instruction and assessment, but the physical and social-emotional environment as well. There is much more to this than what meets the eye. The author of this article gave many great strategies that would be effective, and make sense to me. Some of these strategies would also work really well for general education students as well to maintain a low anxiety level in the classroom. I will definitely employ these practices in my future teaching