Tourettes and short term memory loss

[lkarzen]

Thank you Lara for getting me in the right place.
My son is 15 and a sophmore in high school. He saw Dr. David Comings for several years. His TS is mild, mostly facial tics. He's been getting As and Bs in all of his subjects. Last semester his Guideance Counsler and Special Ed teacher noticed he wasn't retaining information long enough to even take a test the same day. I thought maybe it was work overload, but they think it's short term memory loss.
We don't see his doctor anymore, so does anyone have any dealings with this?
He is adhd and at times ocd. He is also a 2 time state champion (bicycle) track rider who has attended 2 Olympic training camps. He's really on top of his game. need advice?

[Lara]

Hi again. Glad you found your way over here.


I suspected my daughter had some type of processing problem way back in year 7 but it was dismissed at the time by staff at school. She's got a very heavy workload coming up and she's actually asking to see someone about this problem herself. It's never been more apparent than in the last 12 months in particular. She explains it almost exactly as you wrote with learning something and going away and it's all gone "poof". Just not retaining it. As I said on the other post yesterday, there are numerous things that can get in the way of learning for each individual but I wondered if you'd looked at all at any information about Auditory Processing. It might not be relevant, but you might find some idea by going through this information below.

Note there are 3 pages to each of the urls below.

http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/Ciocci.htm

http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/Behrmann.htm

The only other thing I can think of to ask at the moment is if your son has ever had any type of testing done by a psychologist... like to figure out this type of thing or where his strengths are etc..

[lkarzen]

I'll check out the urls and auditory processing. les

[Dawnee]

Is he taking any medications; i.e. Topamax?

[Ingwaz]

I forget things easily myself. I forget to take my noon pill at 12/1:00, so I take it at 2 or 2:30 sometimes. I am always forgetting where my shoes are, even if I just took them off half an hour ago. I forget my hair brush, certain clothes, everyday thing.

I also have been diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder, but I'm not sure if I am medicated for it or not; I'm on so many pills, it is hard to "remember" which do which! :o

[carolyn_lsc]

Just a couple other suggestions as to what's already been suggested. Are your son's tests timed? Is he comfortable where he's taking the tests? Is he tested in a quiet room? All of these things can make a huge difference for me on whether I fail a test or not. It has nothing to do with memory loss for me. I know when I took achievement tests as a child, I'd just start filling in the circles because I'd become so stressed with the time limit-you now have 10 minutes left, you now have two minutes left ... Often in highschool, other students would talk when done with their exams and that would make it hard for me to concentrate on my own exam.

Carolyn

[weas]

i am slowly losing my memory....i hardly remember anything up to age 8 or so....maybe 1 or 2 memories at best....it gets worse each year

[russ_finchie]

How would one cope with constant forgetfullness, and eventually leading to loss of memory?

i have had tourette syndrome for 10 years, that was when i was diagnosed and it was just various tics, until recently i started forgetting a number of things, things i shouldn't forget, and i only just realised the other day that this had been happening for a while and as i have noticed it has been getting worse. Is this me stressing out or is it actual memory loss???

[senny]

you mentioned your son is active, and has participated in many olympic training camps. Having two families members with brain damage from separate incidences, i know how just a small bump on the head can cause memory and other problems. Has you son sustained a concussion? perhaps one you thought at the time was minor? I know i smacked my head quite hard at work a few months ago and since then i've had some trouble with short term memory loss.

To improve this i do 'memory' exorcises, logic puzzles, when i swim i'll do my multiplication tables, since its all memory, anything like that... maybe he just needs to exercise his brain, in the memory sense... get things going again... it might just be a thought, especially with him being so active

[V'rie]

My son has several issues, Tourette being the mildest, with single sided deafness and an unspecified written language Learning Disorder interfering the most. While we are trying to find someone to test for auditory processing disorder (suggested by one of his audiologists, and not performed by the school system ever) his neurologists suggested that much of his LD is related to the Tourette's, rather than hearing. On that account, he is eligible for resource assistance at school. His LD concerns comprehension and word acquisition. In essence, he knows it, but can't find it. He also gets extra time, etc for test situations as needed.

[tic chick]

hey!

welcome back v'rie!! it's been awhile since you've been here.

you certainly have your hands full with the teenagers and the pre-teen. the good and bad part is that all the busy-ness of the next several years will be over at once and sooner than you think.

so, hang in there and enjoy! *smallrose

(((jeannie)))

[V'rie]

Thanks for the welcome back- I do lurk around once in a while but since we just kind of "let the tics go" around here, I don't often reply! Plus, "other" medical has tied up alot of time this last year! Oh, and little things like work and school and kids, ya know!?