Coughing, blinking and eye rolling.

I have a 6 year old son whom has always been eye sensitive to sunlight.  6 months ago I took him to the eye doctor of which said they could not find any problems. Since then, he has started coughing as if to clear his throat.  I took him to the GP and the GP said it was just a cold and he would get over it.  It has now been a good 4 months.  In the last 3 weeks he started blinking and now in the last 2 weeks he is now rolling his eyes back in his head when he is talking to you.  His teacher then bought it to my attention today saying that he is doing it at school and they are worried would like it investigated. I am wondering if he is getting into habits or if it is more sinister. What are your thoughts?

[mgonzalezmd]

Sounds like a tic.  Tics are repetative movements that kids, especially boys will develop in childhood.  Tics can change over time.  Eye blinking, shoulder shrugging, throat clearing are all common types of tics.  If the symptoms are combined with other symptoms such as OCD symptoms or vocalizations (blurting out words/profanities/sounds), it can be a sign of tourettes syndrome.  However, most kids with tics do not have tourettes.  

Tics tend to go away as children grown up.  They also tend to increase in frequency when attention is paid to them.  For example, if you tell your child to stop it, the tic will likely increase for the next little while.

Several videos can be found here:
http://www.google.com/#q=tic+in+children&hl=en&rlz=1R2FUJL_enUS330&prmd=v&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=5eRKTJqrEIP98AaJ3cwy&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDYQqwQwAw&fp=15836b75d06e3371