Symptoms of Tourette's syndrome

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The characteristic symptoms of TS are:

physical tics (known as motor tics): Facial twitches, blinking, head and foot movements, mouth movements, other body movements;
vocal tics (noises or sometimes words): coughing, throat clearing, snorting, repeating words.

The symptoms often start in childhood (around the age of 7) or early teens and are frequently mild. In many cases, the symptoms reduce as the child develops into adulthood and may almost disappear.

In a small number of cases, the symptoms get worse and may interfere with day to day life. Examples of more extreme symptoms include:

complex physical movements (jumping, bending / squatting, stamping, kicking, making obscene gestures)
Throat noises (barking, snorting, screaming)
Words (repeating what other people say, repeating obscene words)

The repeating of obscene words (known as Coprolalia) is rare but is often thought (inaccurately) to be a defining characteristic. Media stereotyping of the condition using this symptom is unhelpful and can be distressing to people with TS and their families.