Group Intervention for Children With Chronic Tics Syndrome or Tourette Syndrome: CBIT vs Psycho-Educational Intervention

Child group: 8 weekly group sessions lasting 90 mins, additional three monthly booster sessions. During sessions, children create a tic hierarchy from most to least distressing, with more distressing tics addressed earlier in the treatment. Awareness training and competing response training is implemented and practiced. Competing response training is added, involving engagement in a voluntary behavior physically incompatible with the tic, contingent on the premonitory urge or other signs of impeding tic occurrence. Relaxation training addresses situations that sustained or worsened tics, training focuses on developing individual behavioral strategies to reduce the influence of these factor. Parallel parent-group sessions simultaneously run during first 4 sessions of child-group. parents-group includes psycho-education and use of reward strategies. Meetings executed by two trained clinicians.

Child group: 8 weekly group sessions lasting 90 mins each, as well as additional three monthly booster sessions afterwards. During the educational group sessions, each session will focus on educating the participants in regard to a specific subject: Tourette syndrome, Self-esteem, Anger, OCD (obssesive compulsive disorder), School and bullying, Anxiety, Attention, and a final session Quiz. Parent group: Parent-group sessions will simultaneously run during the first 4 sessions of the child-group. The parents-group will include psycho-education and the use of reward strategies. All group meetings will be executed and managed by two trained clinicians.