AD(H)D and gifted?

amother

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 1:03 pm

DS was diagnosed as having ADHD-inattentive a few weeks ago. Now the dr. is telling me he is also mildly gifted. After doing tons of research I see very often gifted children are misdiagnosed as having ADD/ADHD. How can I know if he got the correct diagnosis?

FranticFrummie

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 1:09 pm

They can both go hand in hand, or he may just be really unchallenged at school. Get a second opinion, and ask his teachers if they feel that he is ADD or just bored. Sometimes the teachers can give you more accurate info on his classroom behavior.

What is he like at home?

amother

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 4:53 pm

OP here-
Unfortunately his teachers in the past have told me he doesn't pay attention which is what led me to get a diagnosis. They have labeled him as a stupid kid which is utterly ridiculous. I have contacted his current Rebbi and he told me that ds daydreams during class sometimes but seems to be learning what he is supposed to be learning. He said it seems his mind wanders. He also said that ds has a hard time transitioning and takes a extra time to get his written work started.
At home he is often in lala land.

amother

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 8:37 pm

amother wrote:

My son is both adhd and gifted. His father was also gifted with adhd. Adhd men can be very successful financially. The same behavior that hurts them in the classroom helps them With parnosa.

I'm not sure how his being inattentive could help him in the future.

amother

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 9:27 pm

amother wrote:

All my children are like this. I had them evaluated by a top (read way expensive) specialist. One was a processing disorder, one very mild no medication recommended add, some perfectionism thrown in...all very smart and also very creative (which lends to amazing daydreaming abilities)...... we just used the info to cater to the learning style, everything improved with success in school getting help outside of school. All are high scorers on IQ type tests. All were labeled stupid by the stupider school staff.

Schools are assembly lines for average children. For the rest of children it doesn't flow as smoothly. The slower ones struggle too hard, the brighter ones are too bored....

FranticFrummie

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 9:36 pm

amother wrote:

My son is both adhd and gifted. His father was also gifted with adhd. Adhd men can be very successful financially. The same behavior that hurts them in the classroom helps them With parnosa.

I'm not sure how his being inattentive could help him in the future.

Thinking out side the box, multitasking, brainstorming, problem solving, having extra energy to throw at something he's passionate about, there's lots of good stuff there. People with ADHD are excellent at testing video games for programmers! The challenge is getting it channeled into productive pathways.

Find out what he loves, and use that as the key to keep him focused. For example, DD loves horses. For reading, she gets books about horses, for writing she writes stories about them. For math: You have 12 horses, but only 6 stalls. How many horses go into each stall? Same thing with bales of hay, corrals, and other horsey stuff. A big reward for focusing and turning in a months worth of homework would be going on a trail ride with her friends.

imasinger

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 9:55 pm

One more voice to say that ADHD and gifted are not mutually exclusive. I hope you test him further and get confirmation, so you can take pride in his strengths.

Frankly, OP, I would not keep my child in a school that treated him like a failure instead of working with you to help him succeed. I've got 3 kids with ADHD, (and probably have it myself). I look for educators who will help my kids grow, not class them as losers and blow them off. You might want to do the same.

amother

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 11:21 pm

amother wrote:

My son is both adhd and gifted. His father was also gifted with adhd. Adhd men can be very successful financially. The same behavior that hurts them in the classroom helps them With parnosa.

I'm not sure how his being inattentive could help him in the future.

They are not being attentive to what the teacher or the parent wants, they are being attentive to what they want. They focus their thoughts on something other than good cookie cutter behavior. This ability to focus on something different and solve something that had no interest to the average person makes them successful.

Also because they don't do as well in school they tend to have their successes in business. I knew 4 man well with adhd. They were not the best readers but were very good in math and were super good making money.

I see these traits in my son. My son is not yet conscious of how is affect effects how others perceive him. In a few more years then he will be conscience of it and he won't stand out even without mesds

seeker

Thu, Oct 10 2013, 11:32 pm

It is definitely possible to have both ADHD and giftedness. It is also possible to misdiagnose ADHD in a gifted child who is in his own intellectual world, so to speak. To help you figure it out, I'd pay close attention to his behavior when he is challenged and when he is not in school. I would also pay close attention to signs of impulsivity and hyperactivity that come out across a variety of settings. There is no such thing as "having ADHD only in school;" that is a problem with the school, not the child. The impulsivity and hyperactivity come out differently in inattentive-type kids, but it would be there somewhere, even subtly.

amother

Sat, Oct 12 2013, 8:37 pm

imasinger wrote:

OP here-
He has been to a psychologist and psychiatrist. How would I test him further.

I agree about the school situation but frankly, all schools have good teachers and bad teachers.

Bruria

Sun, Oct 13 2013, 2:43 am

Sometimes gifted kids don't do well in school because the material is not challenging enough or doesn't interest them. And, if it's not interesting, they just do something else, which ends up somtimes being confused with adhd. But of course, there are kids with adhd that are also gifted, one thing does not stop the other, but sometimes it's not adhd, just boredom. I have a friend that was diagnosed with adhd as a child, only to be discovered a few years later that she was gifted and as soon as they put her ina different type of school, she excelled and stopped having behavioral issues.

HakarasHatov

Sun, Aug 23 2020, 8:07 pm

amother wrote:

I'm not sure how his being inattentive could help him in the future.

My boss is ad(h)d. he is very successful because it helps him be super efficient . Like speed reading, you dont need to read the whole word or sentence to understand. Everthing "negative" can be channeled for positive.