Sign Language Offers a New Direction

by Debbie Brown

Cory Sweet was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome in the 7th grade. For a while, the constant ticcing and twitching transformed the happy, well mannered, "A" student into a physically exhausted and depressed young man. Between the harassment at school and his body jerking at night, he retreated and was tutored at home for eight weeks.

Eventually his family began attending a new church, His Tabernacle Family Church, which happened to do sign language during the service. Cory started moving his hands and signing, melding his unintentional complex motor tics into this eloquent language of movement.

Now Cory is now a senior in High School in Horseheads, New York and was recently appointed the leader of his church's sign language ministry. He has received a scholarship to attend the University of Rochester, where he will prepare for medical school. Rochester has a large deaf student body and Cory is excited about communicating with his new classmates.

This fall he is in the New Visions Program for accelerated college-bound seniors interested in pursuing careers in healthcare. Cory plans to become a neurologist so he can help others with TS and movement disorders.

"Sign language is an important part of my life because it is how I control my tics and I'm able to go out into public without people staring at me because of my tics", Cory said.

When asked what advice he'd give other teenagers with TS, Cory said, "You need to make a decision to not let TS control your life. Don't let it stop you from doing what you love. Understand that you are not alone; there are others who are going through the same thing, and find support whether it be from your family, friends, teachers or church. Don't seclude yourself; get involved in things like sports, band, volunteer or other extra-curricular activities."

My Baby is Growing Up

By Tracie Wagman

It hit me the other day when my son corrected himself that he is now officially a “big boy”. I was crushed. We all love when kids make those first word mistakes and every parent has their favourite. 

My son used to say “lasterday” instead of yesterday. My husband and I actually thought my son’s word made more sense! He used to call hand cuffs “hand cuffles” and he combined skating and skiing into one generic word: “skeeting”. He disliked his lessons in both skating and skiing so much that it didn’t matter which one he was talking about: “I don’t want to go skeeting!” Once again, he seemed to make more sense when it comes to the English language.

However, the days of his word errors seem to be slowly disappearing and now his older sister makes fun of him when he makes these mistakes and in his fervor of wanting to be a “big boy” he now ensures that he is saying the correct word.

Kids hate when anyone laughs at them – heck we all do! But now that my baby is growing up, I find myself nostalgic for the “olden days” when he used to mess up his words and make up new words to describe things. I hope he can continue to find creative and new ways to express himself that we adults won’t make fun of because I don’t want his growing up to mean conforming 100% to what the adults deem is proper. Sometimes we make mistakes too.  

Tracie Wagman is the owner/publisher of Help We've Got Kids. Tracie works on a number of non-profit companies as well as raising her 2 kids. She is on a never ending quest to find the right balance between work and family.