[senco-forum] 'CO' poisoning and 'nature / nurture' (part two)

Double Oops! I've done it again and accidentally hit the 'send' button
before finishing writing this post. More accurately I've recently
updated my email client to one whose function keys (F1, F2, F3, etc.)
are assigned different to what I'm used to. Consequently when on
'automatic pilot' I went to hit the 'find again' key I ended up
sending the incomplete, unedited and unsigned first part of this post
to the list. Isn't it wonderful the diversity of non-standardised
human-software interfaces, not!   :-(

Anyway before I add what I failed to say in completion of this post,
please also excuse the 'rough and ready' feel of what I've already
posted as I'd only just started editing it:

Anyway what I wanted to finish with is a comment regarding that old
chestnut the 'nature / nurture' debate. For if you were to ask me if
CO poisoning was likely the principal cause of my Tourettes Syndrome
and other neurological issues, you might be tempted to assume my
answer would be 'Yes'.

...well you'd be wrong! For despite what I've written I can assure you
my answer would still be a resounding 'No'. The way I see it genetic
inheritance still plays a major part regarding who is susceptible to
manifesting individual neurobehavioral conditions. Indeed within in my
family there is a long history of 'ticing'. Furthermore at critical
times during the neurological development both of my children they
would have met the full diagnostic criteria for Tourettes, even though
my oldest is now completely tic free. Furthermore scientific research
has confirmed that many neurobehavioral conditions tend to run in
families, including separate branches of families who lost touch with
each other many generations ago.

However 'Nature' is not the only factor that influences who develops a
particular neurological condition and to what degree. For example it's
not unknown for one identical twin to develop full-blown Tourettes,
whereas their genetically identical sibling remains completely free of
tics.

So how does one reconcile these two observations? Well the way I see
it our genetic inheritance controls our susceptibility to a myriad of
potential neurobehavioral conditions or disorders. Then throughout our
lives and especially during childhood the plasticity of our
neurological systems enables us to 'working around' any potential
problems to a greater of lesser degree. Furthermore 'Nurture' or our
environment (physical, chemical, social, psychological, etc.) is a
highly significant factor that moderates this degree of plasticity.

Let's look at how this manifests in practice: A recent scientific
study revealed around 50% of all children manifest significant 'tics'
at some time during their school lives. However with most of these
children their 'ticing' lasts less than a few months before this
completely disappear. However this same study revealed for around 2%
of ALL school students these tics don't disappear completely and they
meet the full official diagnostic criteria for Tourette Syndrome.

...now think carefully about the implications of this statistic:
Within a school of around 1000 students you should be able to identify
approximately twenty children who have Tourette Syndrome -- that's
around one student in every other class of 25 pupils if you look
carefully enough!

Fortunately for most of these students their symptoms are likely to be
comparatively mild and cause them few problems. But ...and this is a
very big 'BUT' ...it takes a lots and lots of energy to 'work around'
or 'hide' their tics for the purpose mitigating against the social and
educational consequences of Tourette Syndrome. As a result a great
many of these students will consistently underperform academically,
which implies that the consequences of Tourettes for students who
successfully hide or disguise their ticing (or indeed other
neurologically challenged students who suppress the symptoms of their
ADHD) can be profound in the extreme.

So how does one identify such students if their ticing (or ADHD
symptoms -- especially girls with ADD [with little or no
hyperactivity]) is so subtle and well disguised it's extremely
difficult to single them out, for the purpose of providing them with
appropriate support? Well one way is to have someone like myself who
is thoroughly familiar with Tourettes 'first hand' assist you in this
endeavour. In fact it's widely recognised within the Tourettes
community that people like myself who've been diagnosed with Tourettes
and are reasonably comfortable with this label often become experts at
applying the 'Hundred Yard Tic Test'.

So what is the 'Hundred Yard Tic Test'? Well basically this refers to
the uncanny ability of some people who are thoroughly familiar with
Tourette to almost instantly identify other people with Tourettes or
'significant ticing' simply by observing them from a distance of up to
one hundred yards.

And finally (as Trevor Macdonald is so fond of saying) I do hope
you find this long post helpful.

David Bowles
Education Support