Explore Support & Resources
Explore books, tools, and scholarship designed to support individuals and families living with Tourette syndrome and associated conditions.
Resources
Books
With so much information available today, it's hard to know where to start. The books below are a collection of resources we found to be helpful. The collection includes, but is not limited to books on Tourette syndrome and associated conditions, mindfulness, and coping. It is by no means an exhaustive list; we are always looking for meaningful content. Please contact us if you believe there is something that we should include.
Tools
We know sometimes it can be difficult to tell others about Tourette syndrome. So we created a pocket sized awareness card to help. An awareness card gives a short description about Tourette syndrome. It can be an easier way to let others know by simply handing it out. The awareness card can be downloaded for free at your convenience.
The Tourette Association of America, in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, created a library of comprehensive materials in a variety of languages about Tourette syndrome and tic disorders. These guides are free for the community and available to download at your convenience. Please visit tourette.org to download the resources.
Scholarship
We offer a scholarship program designed to provide financial assistance to individuals seeking to attend Tourette Syndrome summer camp and related conferences. Our goal is to enrich the lives of children and their families through education, community, and unforgettable experiences.
Application Guidelines for Tourette Camp or Conference
To apply for Tourette camp or a Tourette related conference, please include a short essay introducing yourself and sharing why you would like to attend. This is a great opportunity to talk about your personal journey and what Tourette syndrome means to you. Please include the name of the camp or conference you would like to attend, along with the dates of the event.
You may also include a letter of recommendation written on your behalf by a teacher, mentor, or someone who knows you well.
Essay Requirements
- Introduce yourself: Share your background, interests, and connection to Tourette Syndrome.
- Explain your motivation: Discuss why you want to attend the camp or conference, including what you hope to learn or gain from the experience.
Please email your completed essay to info@tourettesupport.org. We look forward to your submissions and appreciate your interest in joining our community. Thank you!
School Book Bundles
A part of our mission is to spread awareness of Tourette syndrome in classrooms across our community. One way we do this is by donating age appropriate Tourette related book bundles to school classrooms and libraries. When students learn about Tourette syndrome at an early age together as a class, it opens the door to understanding, kindness, and acceptance. A single book can spark conversations, answer questions, and help create a more welcoming environment for a child with Tourette syndrome.
Our goal is to place these book bundles in schools throughout Southeast Wisconsin so more students and teachers can learn, connect, and support one another. With your help, we can reach even more classrooms. Please consider making a donation today and help us continue spreading awareness one school, one classroom, and one story at a time. Thank you for being part of this mission.
We are proud to have donated book bundles to the following schools:
- Southwood Glen Elementary School (Franklin, Wisconsin)
- Waller Elementary School (Burlington, Wisconsin)
- Karcher Middle School (Burlington, Wisconsin)
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Books that inspire, stories that empower.
Childrens' Books
Tic & Twitch: A Story About
Tourette Syndrome
by Melissa Mederos
Tommy was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at the age of 13. Rather than hating and resenting his reality, Tommy was able to accept Tourette's as something more that contributed to his uniqueness in the world. Even so, growing up with Tourette's is challenging. Tic and Twitch is a story about those challenges and about the beautiful things in life that make those challenges tolerable.
My Brain is a Race Car: A children's guide to a neuro-divergent brain
by Neil Harris
Created and inspired by my daughters ADHD diagnosis, I wanted to gift her a book that help explained her brain's processes and needs. No big words or acronyms that result in 'what does that mean' and bring the child out of the story.
Taking Tourette Syndrome to School
by Tira Krueger
These beautifully illustrated and fun-to-read storybooks simplify and normalize complicated childhood conditions, like Tourette Syndrome. When read aloud, other children can identify why a peer may be treated differently and begin to empathize with them. In addition, children whose conditions set them apart as being different begin to feel accepted and safe.
My Life with Tourette Syndrome
by Mari Schuh
Emma has Tourette syndrome. Emma is real and so are her experiences. Learn about her life in this illustrated narrative nonfiction picture book for elementary students. Kids are naturally curious about differences. Emma sheds light on her life, with the help of experienced children's author Mari Schuh. Emma is not defined by Tourette syndrome, but she has some challenges dealing with tics.
What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming OCD
by Dawn Huebner
With engaging examples, activities, and step-by-step instructions, it helps children master the skills needed to break free from OCD's sticky thoughts and urges, and live happier lives. This What-to-Do Guide is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to work toward change.
Anger Management Skills Workbook for Kids: 40 Awesome Activities to Help Children Calm Down, Cope, and Regain Control
by Amanda Robinson
While some children instinctively know how to regulate their emotions, plenty of others lack the skills they need to express their anger in healthy and effective ways. This warm, engaging workbook helps children ages 5-10 develop strong skills for managing their anger through 40 fun activities.
What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety
by Dawn Huebner
Lively metaphors and humorous illustrations make the concepts and strategies easy to understand, while clear how-to steps and prompts to draw and write help children to master new skills related to reducing anxiety. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering kids to overcoming their overgrown worries.
Find Your Calm: A Mindful Approach to Relieve Anxiety & Grow Your Bravery
by Gabi Garcia
Anxiety is not just a cognitive experience. When children feel anxious, their bodies respond physically to a perceived threat. They need to feel a sense of safety before being able to figure out what to do next. Your child can follow along as the young narrator practices what helps her so that anxiety doesn't take over. This book teaches children how to tap into their sense of safety when anxiety sends a false alarm, so they can find their calm. Includes simple activities for them to practice.
Listening to My Body
by Gabi Garcia
Listening to My Body is an engaging and interactive book that guides children through the process of naming their emotions and the physical sensations accompanying them. Teaching kids to tune into their bodies and name their feelings is a foundation for emotional regulation. From wiggly and squirmy to rested and still, Listening to My Body helps children develop a sensations vocabulary to help them express what they are experiencing. It includes kid-friendly "Let's Practice" activities throughout the book so children can practice what they're learning.
Breathe Like a Bear: 30 Mindful Moments for Kids to Feel Calm and Focused Anytime, Anywhere
by Kira Willey
This collection of mindfulness exercises is designed to teach kids techniques for managing their bodies, breath, and emotions. Best of all, these thirty simple, short breathing practices and movements can be performed anytime, anywhere: in the car on the way to the grocery store, during heavy homework nights at home, or even at a child's desk at school.
I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness
by Susan Verde
Mindfulness means being fully in the present moment. Children can learn how to manage their emotions, make good choices, and balance their busy lives by learning to be mindful, express emotions through speech, find empathy through imagination, and wonder at the beauty of the natural world.
Just Ask: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You
by Sonia Sotomayor
In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges--and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we're not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask.
I Am Me: A Book of Authenticity
by Susan Verde
Sometimes we hide who we really are to conform to the way we think we are supposed to be in the world. Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and feel we don’t fit in. But when we realize we are something to be celebrated and we proudly live out loud as our true selves, we can make our unique mark on the world—and share our joy!
I Am Yoga
by Susan Verde
An eagle soaring among the clouds or a star twinkling in the night sky . . . a camel in the desert or a boat sailing across the sea. Yoga has the power of transformation. Not only does it strengthen bodies and calm minds, but with a little imagination, it can show us that anything is possible.
Young Adult Books
My Feelings Journal & Worry Book: Emotions Journal Log Book for Kids & Teens
by Lilly's Journal
Your child will be able to think about how they feel each day. This could be a good journal to even use in the School environment - for kids who struggle to talk about and their feelings and emotions. In particular, those with conditions such as: Aspergers, ASC, ADHD, Anxiety disorders, or Depression. Or simply any child who could benefit from reflecting on how they feel and tracking their moods.
The Tourettes Survival Kit: Tools for Young Adults with Tics
by Tara Murphy and Damon Millar
Presenting everyday situations, from schools and exams through to driving and dates, this guide provides simple solutions to common problems and concerns. Dr Tara gives her top tips for managing tics, alongside behavioural therapy techniques for stress management and strategies for coping with commonly co-occurring conditions such as ADHD, OCD and anxiety.
OCDaniel
by Wesley King
Daniel is the back-up punter for the Erie Hills Elephants. Which really means he’s the water boy. He spends football practice perfectly arranging water cups—and hoping no one notices. Actually, he spends most of his time hoping no one notices his OCD habits—he calls them Zaps: avoiding writing the number four, for example, or flipping a light switch on and off dozens of times over. But everything changes when a girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the first time. She doesn’t just notice him: she seems to peer through him.
My Non-Identical Twin
by Evie Meg
I talk about the many other illnesses I've been through and the dreams that it's affected - about my school days, relationships and my very lowest points - but I also talk about what I've managed to achieve in spite of all the obstacles. I hope it'll make you laugh and make you think, and empower you to realize that no matter what you're facing in life, there are always ways to deal with the challenges.
Forget Me Not
by Ellie Terry
Astronomy-loving Calliope June has Tourette syndrome, so she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make. When she and her mother move yet again, she tries to hide her TS. But it isn't long before the kids at her new school realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor, who is also the popular student body president, sees her as she truly is?an interesting person and a good friend. But is he brave enough to take their friendship public?
Every Last Word
by Tamara Ireland Stone
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
by Dusti Bowling
Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again.
Outsmarting Worry
by Dawn Huebner
Worry has a way of growing, shifting from not-a-big-deal to a VERY BIG DEAL in the blink of an eye. This big-deal Worry is tricky, luring children into behaviours that keep the anxiety cycle going. Children often find it hard to fight back against Worry, but not anymore. Outsmarting Worry teaches 9-13 year olds and the adults who care about them a specific set of skills that makes it easier to face - and overcome - worries and fears.
Adult Books
Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had
by Brad Cohen
As a child with Tourette syndrome, Brad Cohen was ridiculed, beaten, mocked, and shunned. Children, teachers, and even family members found it difficult to be around him. As a teen, he was viewed by many as purposefully misbehaving, even though he had little power over the twitches and noises he produced, especially under stress. Even today, Brad is sometimes ejected from movie theaters and restaurants.
Tourette Syndrome: 10 Secrets to a Happier Life
by Michael S. Okun, M.D.
This book brings together 10 clinical and research experts in Tourette syndrome who are drawn from the Tourette Association of America Center of Excellence program. The book was co-written and edited by Amazon bestselling author Michael S. Okun, M.D. who, a leading authority in Tourette and who is known for his many books and publications on secrets to a happier life. The goal was to assemble 10 secrets to help people on their journey to a happier life with Tourette syndrome. The book is organized into a simple and easy to digest question and answer format. The book is a great read, but also an easy reference guide.
Ticcing My Way Through Life
by Britney Wolf
Britney Wolf takes her readers on a journey into her life with Tourette Syndrome. Whether it was with her family, at work, or in the classroom, tics always followed her. Britney brings you into the depths of her world by sharing stories of hardship and triumph while providing reflection and thought-provoking questions to her readers. Whether you’re an educator, employer, or have Tourette Syndrome affecting your life in any way, this book will be sure to make a difference in the way you see and hear the words Tourette Syndrome.
A Family's Guide to Tourette Syndrome
by M.d John T. Walkup
Providing authoritative and up-to-date medical and scientific information about Tourette syndrome, A Family's Guide to Tourette Syndrome speaks to patients, families, care providers, academic institutions, and medical centers in easy-to-understand language about this neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children, adolescents, and adults worldwide. Each chapter is authored by leading neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, scientists, and others with expertise and research interests in Tourette syndrome.