BellaOnline Forums Education Gifted Education adhd? looking for well-meaning opinions...

we got the diagnoses: adhd. and, he is textbook hyperactive/innattentive. here's what i think about adhd, though. i have always seen adhd as mild fiction - a way of describing how a sect of mentally healthy individuals thinks differently (been diagnosed myself). being on a gifted forum, i think it's safe to say that many of you also have children who are bored in the classroom, seem to not be listening to the teacher, talk with the other students during class (when they are not interested) and interject their opinions with the teacher (when they are), and get antsy in their chairs. what's the difference? impulsiveness?

btw, we got the diagnoses to get him special help/attention for these behaviors in school - since our financial situation may force us to put him in for atleast part of the school year (currently, we homeschool). we will not be medicating, and are looking for approaches to regulate some of the more "adhd-like" behavior (such as; impulsive tendency to damage things when bored, lack of verbal self-control).

suggestions?

As part of my DS's diagnosis (Asperger's), he also demonstrates "ADHD tendencies." The diagnostician explained to us that the difference (from the theoretical perspective) between normal children who are simply bored/inattentive/fidgety (i.e. "ADHD like" or "exhibits ADHD tendencies") and a hard diagnosis of ADHD (which I would say is overdiagnosed, as opposed to fictional) is: the degree to which the behavior occurs, the longevity of the behaviors (has the child had issues with this over a period of time), and whether the behaviors create any sort of barrier or handicap (socially, emotionally, educationally--usually in at least two settings) for the child.

Sometimes simple changes in environment, changes in diet, changes in school personnel or method of management of the child, etc. can make a great deal of difference in a child's behavior; and sometimes these changes have no impact.

I think ADHD and ADD (without hyperactivity) are both valid disorders.

I also believe, however, that is it WAY overdiagnosed.

Many teachers and parents are not willing to take the time to find out what is actually going on with a child - they would rather just label them ADHD. Which is a sligh improvement over being labeled "troubled kid" or "no good kid" in the past.

The really funny thing (ironic, not ha-ha) is that all of the medications for ADHD are actually amphetamine based. Thta's why you hear them sometimes being abused by mothers of these kids - they take them as uppers.

But if a child does NOT have true ADHD -then you are giving him/her a medication that is certain to make them even more hyperactive!

It kind of reminds me of the way I was diagnosed with my migraines many, many years ago. The doctor gave me a shot of Imitrex. His logic to me, "If it makes your headache go away, you had a migraine. If it doesnt do anything, then we need to do some more tests". This is definitely NOT that way I would allow a doc to treat one of my children, but I was in so much pain - I was willing to try it, LOL! (It worked, btw, so he dx me with migraines).

I agree with the other posters about ADD and ADHD being valid but perhaps too freely diagnosed disorders. One advantage of having your children learn at home is that if they do have an issue that makes them 2e (twice exceptional) you can choose your own methods of accommodation. You may find that moderate exercise lessons attention issues, as may dietary changes and appropriate educational challenge (neither too easy nor too hard). See my review on this site of "Spark" by John Ratey.


good luck!

in the course of trying to deal with behavior, i've read a lot of parenting books. the only ones that have read like they are truly applicable to my child are ADHD parenting books. case studies in ADHD books read like a personal history for our family.

our family eats like the recommended diet and we have a pretty good educational balance with him. i'm terrified to put him back in school, because changing lifestyle is very hard for him (when we moved, i experienced my personal version of hell with him), and i'm not sure they can give him the educational balance (no gifted program or acceleration here). we have put more routine in his life and that seems to help a little. other suggestions seem to have very little affect after doing them for a month.

my son continually changes my perception of the world - making me question my beliefs. i guess it's more that i don't want it labeled and real, than i don't believe in it.

I went to a talk about gifted/ADHD, and one of the distinguishing characteristics was said to be that a distracted gifted non-ADHD kid will pick up where he or she left off when distracted, but an ADHD child (gifted or otherwise) will NOT pick up where he or she left off. And I remember years ago helping my mil grade some tests (she was an elementary school teacher, and had an ADHD child in her class; the law there was that they had to have a 2 week trial period every year off meds to make sure the kid really needed them -- and he was bouncing off the walls then) -- and got to one that was so glaringly obvious. I asked, "Is X the child?" She confirmed it. He got every question he answered right, obvious he understood the material - but grading the paper, it was also obvious to see when his attention was parsing in and out. Correct, blank, blank, correct....

I do believe that it is overused, though, and that some parents want the label to avoid parenting. (I've met some who were like that, others who had the label, and were fantastic parents who helped guide their children to better deal with it.) I've met kids whose parents were told that they MUST be add/adhd, and had to be tested -- and they were tested bored out of their minds, but not ADHD. But, of course, it is easier for some teachers to just lump all children who don't fit the mold into a nice box.

so does anyone here have a definitely gifted, definitely adhd child?

Well, my son definitely fits that description - but he is also Asperger's - so he has more than one thing working against him.

It is hard to tell whether his distractedness is caused by his ADHD or his autism at times - the difference being whether the distraction comes from inside or out basically.

What is intersting is my daughter is ADD w/out the hyperactivity. In my day, we would have called her an "airhead". But that is why it took us longer to dx her. She wasn't bouncing off the walls like my oldest, just not doing well in school. But then one teacher remarked on how forgetful she was - like immediately forgetful, so we had her evaluated. She's now on the same medicine (much lower dosage) as my son - and is now in all gifted classes, whereas before she was struggling to get Bs. So I'd say she qualifies as gifted and ADD.

We are waiting to see how things turn out with the youngest. He's 6, and already shows signs of brilliance (like scary geometry comprehension). And he goes 9,000 miles an hour. But he does not display attention deficit, the exact opposite- he can work on something for hours if it interests him. If it doesn't - well, forget it. But he is constantly giving us heart attacks with stuff that he tries lie climbing the refrigerator, swinging from the chandelier, etc. He is just always going. We made the mistake of letting him have a coke once - never again! But it is like he has the hyperactivity without the ADD.

So I have every child. And they are going to kill me I think.

Two of my kids are gifted and diagnosed with ADD. I'm quite sure that I have undiagnosed ADD as well- I have read countless books on the topic since my kids have been diagnosed. My doctor and I were just discussing my issues yesterday, and he said that I sound like a classic case of inattentive type. A fantastic book that covers ADD and giftedness and how they are often confused is "Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis", which I have a review of in the site archives. You can locate it with search, or look under the topic, "resources for parents".

Michelle, your youngest sounds a bit like my son. One thing to keep in mind is that highly gifted kids often (not universally - nothing seems to be!) are kinetic, almost as if their bodies are displaying the pace of their minds.

And my ds definitely does well when interested, less so when not. His grades reflect it -- easy to tell where his interests lie!

And I second Lorel's suggestion of Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis -- a lot of great stuff in there!