Recent Events

• Families and individuals with a new TS diagnosis, for the Newly Diagnosed Seminar and other informative sessions!
• People of all ages with TS and their families - for news, information, updates, and networking
• Chapter/Support group leaders and volunteers who serve people with TS

Pictures from 2010 National Conference -

            

Student Council for Exceptional Children (SCEC) Presentation -

In February, board member Patti Throckmartin gave an in service presentation to over 100 attendees fromthe Student Council for Exceptional Children (SCEC) at Eastern Illinois University.  Educating these future teachers of our children about TS is critical and we are grateful to Patti for taking the time to give this presentation.
Patti has been very actively working with TSA-IL for several years being a huge support system for families across Illinois, but this was a very large group of people and Patti was a tad nervous!  Patti said "I felt about 100 butterflies in my stomach and my hands were shaking"... but according to her daughter Angelina who attended as well you would never have known.
The presentation went wonderful and Patti even exchanged contact information with several attendees.  Along with all of the great information Patti shared on TS she is also able to give the perspective of being a parent of a child with TS.  Patti's son Joseph, age 15 has TS, Asperger, Sensory Processing Disorder and OCD and one of the big take-aways from the day is that Patti doesn't "sweat the small stuff, and keeps thinking outside the box to be creative, especially when hitting a detour".  Great Job Patti!

General Meeting 3/6/10

On Saturday, March 6th TSA-IL hosted our annual general meeting.  The presenter for the meeting was Dr. Marta Mueller.  Dr. Mueller is a psychiatrist specializing in working with children and adolescents who have TS.  She has been with Oconomowoc Developmental Training Center for over 30 years!  The ODTC is a residential facility for children and adolescents with neurological disorders, including TS.  She has also facilitated a support group for TS families for 13 years.  Dr. Mueller's presentation encompassed information on many therapy options for people with TS such as CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy), Biofeedback, and Sensorty Integration Training.  She also discussed more invasive options such as DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagining) scans.  Those who attended found her presentation incredibly insightful and enjoyed meeting the other TS families in attendance.
This meeting was held in conjunction with a program for kids through the Tourette Syndrome Camping Organization.  The TSCO program was for boys and girls ages 8-16 years old who have TS and their siblings.  It was held at the Lattof YMCA in Des Plaines and the kids spent the afternoon playing on an indoor climing wall and rope course.  Lunch was provided and the kids had a great time being active at the YMCA while making new friends.

City of Chicago Support Group Pizza Party

On Saturday, March 20th the City of Chicago Support Group had a pizza party to celebrate it's new meeting location.  With this new home, meeting attendance is expected to climb,  with 5 new members attending the pizza party alone!  There were several kids at the meeting who played board games and entertained the group on the piano.  According to support group leader Michele Lehman "It was fun to see the children become friends with each other."  Topics discussed were challenged TS families face during uncomfortable situations in public and the importance of self-advocacy and educating.  The party was also attended by Scott Loeff from the Tourette Syndrome Camping Organization to talk about summer camp.