Lehigh School Psychology grad Dr. Katrina Lindsay '15 worked with Ethan Herald to improve his life with Tourette's

The problem that brought 7th-grader Ethan Herald to pediatric psychologist Katrina Lindsay at Akron Children’s Hospital was a vocal stutter he later named his “echo tic.” Ethan is outgoing and had no trouble with church readings or speaking in front of his class at Northwest Middle School in Canal Fulton. But when he was nervous or excited, the tic came out.  He would trip over words, start over and repeat himself several times. “I would try to get certain words out. They wouldn’t come out until a couple words later,” Ethan explained. “Every time I started a story and stuttered, I really hated it.” Dr. Lindsay developed a program at Akron Children’s Hospital for kids and teens with tics and Tourette syndrome. Tics are a neurological disorder that causes people to make sudden, involuntary movements and sounds. They usually show up in childhood – around age 6 on average. Tourette syndrome is a type of tic disorder involving multiple tics. (watch video)