[Health in the 100-Year Life Era] Parents' Anxiety Erodes Children's Souls

Do Not Scold When Showing Tic Symptoms
It's Better to Ignore and Not Show Interest

When sitting and talking in the clinic, you encounter children who come for various reasons. One common reason children visit around the time of entering elementary school is tics. Usually, tics refer to sudden movements or sounds made unconsciously and without purpose. Common examples of tics include frequent blinking or sniffing sounds. The child met in the clinic was attending kindergarten and had started blinking frequently about six months ago. After a period of improvement, the child recently began blinking again and started twisting their neck once in a while, which led to the hospital visit. The child's parents initially thought it was an allergy and visited an ophthalmologist, who said it was fine. When the symptoms reappeared, they sought help again and began to consider tics.

From the moment suspicion of tics arises, parents' feelings become complicated. They look it up and find that it is often related to stress. Did I scold my child too harshly last week? Did it start because I began sending them to a tutoring academy they didn’t want to attend last month? Various factors are involved in the onset of tics, but it is generally not thought that tics arise due to improper parenting methods or psychological reasons. So why do tics occur? According to current research, it is believed to be due to immaturity in the brain areas related to movement. In other words, the child's tic that appeared last month was neither because the parents scolded too harshly nor because they started attending the academy.

Does this mean tics have nothing to do with stress? When meeting children, many show that their tics worsen when they are stressed. However, many children also experience worsening tics without stress. In other words, while tics are related to stress, it is difficult to think that tics arise solely because of stress or worsen only due to stress.

When meeting children with tics, there are times when it seems better to start treatment. For example, when the neck-twisting tic causes the child to start having neck pain, or when vocal tics disrupt classes and lead to teasing from friends. If tics significantly affect daily life and begin to interfere with routine, that may be a moment when help is needed. In other words, many children showing tic symptoms are observed over time for changes in symptoms rather than starting treatment immediately.

The most important thing when dealing with children is not to scold them for having tics. Going a step further, it is better to ignore the tic symptoms and not pay excessive attention to them. The reason for ignoring tics is that scolding does not help the child control the tics. It is like not scolding a short child for not being tall. If a child is scolded because of tics, the tics will not improve, and only the child's self-esteem will decline.

From a doctor's perspective, most children who come to the hospital need treatment and thus start treatment. However, in the case of tics, the opposite is true: most are observed without treatment. Nevertheless, many parents do not leave the clinic feeling at ease. The parents of the child who came to the clinic that day felt the same. From the perspective of parents raising children rather than doctors, this is very understandable. However, there is one thing I would like to ask: parents need to soothe and embrace their anxious feelings well so that this anxiety does not transfer to the child.

Lee Taeyeop, Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Seoul Asan Medical Center