Tics – Therapist Manual & Workbook for Children by Cara Verdellen (2016-08-02)

“Tics” is a manual for treating children from 7-13 years with tics and Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. The manual consists of a set, containing the Therapist Manual and the Workbook for Children. The Therapist Manual provides therapists with step by step information and enables them to make notes of each session. The Workbook for Children can be used by children in a behavioural therapy setting. A Workbook for Parents can be downloaded free of charge (PDF document). Two behavioral treatment methods are described in this protocol: Exposure and response prevention and Habit reversal. Both habit reversal (HR) and exposure and response prevention (ER) are recommended as first-line interventions for children and adults according to the Canadian and European Guidelines. Exposure and response prevention target all the tics at once. By suppressing tics for a substantial amount of time, a child is given the opportunity to tolerate the unpleasant premonitory sensory phenomena (tic-alerts), which often precede a tic and subside once a tic has been expressed. During the sessions of habit reversal, each tic is tackled separately by becoming aware of the tic and then learning a competing response that prevents the tic. Additional interventions include developing strategies to manage remaining tics and relaxation exercises, and the manual ends with a relapse prevention plan. Parents are involved in the treatment: they record tics daily, practice together with their child and help improve the child’s awareness.

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