SALLY

Sally’s Sample Presentation
created by Jen Zwilling, TSA Youth Ambassador program founder

(Before you begin remember download a picture of Sally from the website!)

Hi! Everyone. My name is ________________.

Today, I am going to tell you about something called Tourette Syndrome.

Many kids and grown-ups all over the world have Tourette Syndrome and mostly everyone calls it TS because it is easier to say!

So many people have TS that there are lots of books about TS and lots of books with characters in them that have TS.

(Now you can hold up your picture of Sally.)

This is Sally. She has TS.
But before I tell you about TS I am going to tell you a little bit about Sally.

Sally is really cool and good at a lot of things.
Sally loves to act and even got the lead in her school play.
Sally is very responsible and gets to baby-sit, pet-sit (baby sit for people’s pets) and even works at kids’ birthday parties.
Sally has lots of friends.

Sally and I have something in common (the same). Sally also has something in common with you too!

Sally is a regular kid, just like you and me.
Sally also has TS just like me.

TS is something that you are born with just like you are born with the color of your hair or eyes.

TS is not something you can catch from someone the way you catch a cold…you are either born with TS or you don’t have it.

TS makes kids like Sally (and like me) move parts of their bodies when they don’t want to move….

and it can make kids make sounds when they don’t want to make sounds.

These movements are called Tics….not T-I-C-K-S like the little black bug….these are T-I-C-S….which mean that you move your body or make sounds when you don’t want to or are not trying to.
When you have TS and your tic comes you can’t stop it even if you want to.
But, TS is just a little part of a regular kid.

Sally doesn’t tic all the time, but when she does, she has a whole bunch of tics that come together. Sally coughs, whistles, shrugs (you can demonstrate, show a shrug) and blinks. These movements all come one right after another. Sally is pretty good at knowing when the tics are coming and sometimes she will go someplace, like into the bathroom to be alone, when she has to tic. Sometimes, she just tics wherever she is. And once, when Sally had the lead in her school play, it was decided that the character in the play would have TS so that Sally didn’t even have to think or worry about her tics.

TS doesn’t stop Sally (or me) from doing anything.

I hope this helps you understand TS and why some kids move some parts of their bodies or make funny sounds when they don’t want to.
I hope that now that you know about TS, you will understand that it is just a little part of a regular kid.

Does anyone have any questions??????