At Camp Twitch and Shout, Tourette kids can be themselves (CNN) [View All]

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By Leslie Wade
CNN Medical Producer

(CNN) -- For Brad Cohen, the barking and squealing noises he could not control began in the fifth grade.

"I remember eating lunch at school all by myself and the mean kids would parade around me and mock my noises. My teacher made me get up in front of the class and apologize to everybody for the noises I was making," Cohen recalls.

More than 20 years later, Cohen is a camp director, celebrating the first year of Camp Twitch and Shout, a place for youngsters, who like Cohen, have Tourette syndrome.

"Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder which causes people to make noises and tics that they can't control," Cohen says.

Fifty campers, between the ages of 7 and 18, came from all over the country to spend a week in Winder, Georgia, about 45 miles east of Atlanta. They have plenty to do, from swimming and fishing to music and arts and crafts. Most have been teased or harassed in school, and the camp is a place just to have fun.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/27/tourette.camp/index.html




For interesting reading on Tourette's, heartily recommend Oliver Sacks' "An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales"