Tic Reversal Training for Tourette Syndrome?

The neurologist who diagnosed our son with Tourette Syndrome asked us to see a Behavior Health Specialist to see about something called "Tic Reversal Therapy".  This tic reversal therapy or training was some sort of way to teach the brain to not tic or do something else instead.  

We really weren't sure about all of this, but we didn't know what we were supposed to be doing if anything after your son is diagnosed with Tourette's, so we just went along and did as we were told.

The Behavior Health Specialist was a nice lady, and she seemed pretty smart, and so we sat back and let her tell us what we should do.  She had asked us to monitor Thumper for a few weeks and keep track of how often he was showing tics and which ones.  This we tried, but seriously, unless I had all the time in the world in which I could just sit there and stare at Thumper, there was no way I could keep very good record.  It was impossible most of the time, and so our little log turned into more of a guessing, make up the answers sort of journal.  

It was hard to say when Thumper ticked more.  I couldn't say he did it more in the morning or at night, or after school.  I think I didn't have a lot of time while getting 4 kids up and going in the morning to pay enough attention.  I suppose I noticed it more at night, but that was only because the day was winding down.  Who knew?  I wasn't much help.  

So anyway, we turned in our "best guessed" journal of Thumper's tics and waited to see what was next.  

This is where things surprised me.  She wanted us to come up with a sort of "cue word" in which every time we saw Thumper tic, we were supposed to say the word so that he would be aware of his tics more.  OK, this seemed a little odd.  I thought we were supposed to ignore the tics and now we were going to be focusing on them?

We trusted the doctor and did this for a few weeks as well as keep another log of how his tics were (another awful hit and miss record!) doing.  At our next appointment we turned it in and awaited our next instruction.  This is where the tic reversal training began.  

The doctor gave Thumper a new behavior.  She called this an "alternative behavior".  Instead of gulping, she wanted every time he had to do the swallowing or gulping tic, that instead he should put his teeth together and this would make it so he was unable to swallow.  So, for the next few weeks he was to do this, but at the same time he was to keep track of how often he was doing the tics and that he should tally them in a little notebook.  

So, here we went for the next few days with him ticking more and biting his teeth together and then writing little tally marks in his notebook.  Was this going to help him lesson the tics?  It seemed a little strange, and I continued to wonder why he needed to be made so aware of his tics.  Wouldn't that make them worse?  It did at first, but then it seemed to not be so bad.  Again we tried to document his progress and we waited for the next appointment.