While The Middle hints that Brick’s tics come from a tic disorder or even a type of autism, they never outright say what he’s living with. However, he was based on a real person, which is why viewers who also have similar disorders feel that Brick works as a character.

In 2014, Atticus told Hollywood, “See, the character Brick was based on one of the creator’s sons. He actually whispered from time to time, and therefore it went into the character … Eileen Heisler’s son.” It isn't clear if Eileen’s son also had osteogenesis imperfecta (aka brittle bone syndrome), like Brick and Atticus, but it’s clear that the writers had a lot of empathy when creating the youngest Heck.

While we may never know exactly why Brick had his verbal tics, it’s possible the Hecks may also never know. The whole idea of The Middle is that they’re a dysfunctional midwestern working-class family, and they might have bigger fish to fry than the perfectly manageable behavior of their young intelligent son.