Living with Tourette's OUR JAMIE'S JUST BRILLIANT

The proud parents are raising a confident boy, who is embracing his tics like a superhero

- Cloe Willetts

When Shelley Reynolds was pregnant with her son Jamie, she hung a canvas on his bedroom wall displaying the Dr Seuss quote, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” At the time, the Lower Hutt mum and her husband Matt Reynolds didn’t know how significant those words would be for their vibrant six-year-old boy, who has been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome.

“Jamie started ticcing just before his fourth birthday, and it took a lot of doctor visits and a specialist appointment before he was diagnosed with a tic disorder,” recalls Shelley, 42, chatting to the Weekly as her talkative boy bounds happily around the living room. “It began with a throat-clearing tic. Then he started developing more tics and was diagnosed late last year with Tourette’s.”

The former marketing manager describes Tourette’s as a complex neurological disorder that’s unpredictable, uncontrollable and widely misunderstood.

“When Jamie was diagnosed with a tic disorder, we told him he was very special and so he used to walk around telling us we weren’t special because we didn’t tic!” laughs Shelley. “For Jamie, having Tourette’s is part of his personality – he’s very proud of it.”

But the mum-of-one admits it can be socially isolating. “Sometimes school is hard for Jamie, and we don’t go to restaurants because these busy environments can be overstimulating and overwhelming for him,” she tells. “Grown-ups will turn around if he makes a noise and stare, and then he becomes self-conscious.”