The "Living with Juvenile HD" booklet has the following to say on first symptoms of JHD:
Symptoms can appear so gradually that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate them from normal "growing pains."
Keith (person in booklet) was a happy-go-lucky, mischievous little boy who was "very good in sports during his first few years at school. He won lots of ribbons on sports day," said his Mom, Laura. "Then, when he entered grade 3, he started having behavioral problems. He ran away from school a lot - we still do not know why. He was about 8 years old. I began to notice he wasn't very coordinated at times, but I just thought it was a clumsy age he was going through."
Jodie walked and talked at the usual ages, and had an affectionate, happy, personality. She enjoyed her time in daycare and kindergarten, and was excited when she started grade one. Her mother, Brenda, was quite surprised when "at the first parent-teacher interview, the teacher told me that Jodie was not as mature as the other children. Around the same time, one of my relatives said that Jodie seemed to be spastic. I was not happy with either of these statements. In fact, at first I denied that they could be correct."
This is a common first response - to deny the possibility that someone we love could be ill. "I did not believe that Jodie could have Huntington's disease" Brenda said. "The information that I had read said that the symptoms usually do not begin until the person is well into adulthood." Still, she did take Jodie to the doctor at the suggestion of the school. "By this time I had accepted that she did have something wrong with her, but I thought that it must be something else."
It is rare that disease onset occurs before age 6 (only 1 or 2% of HD cases). The first symptoms usually are motor symptoms, slow, stiff, awkward walking and talking, choking, clumsiness and falling. Chorea (irregular involuntary muscle contradictions)is rarely marked and, in some children, is totally absent. Chorea tends to be more prominent in older children (those with onset t 15-18 years of age).
Classic "rigid juvenile cases," whose slow movements and abnormal posture resemble those of an older Parkinsonian patient, tend to have disease onset in the first decade of life. Some, with onset in the second and third decade, have considerable rigidity.
