ADHD and Giftedness
The topic of "Gifted and ADHD" is extremely complex and sometimes controversial. On the one hand, many "gifted" students are misdiagnosed as having ADHD because they become fidgety, restless, or disruptive when they are bored. They often already know the material the teacher is covering that day, or have to sit and wait for other students to complete the work that they completed in half the time. On the other hand, gifted students with ADHD are often under diagnosed because they are bright and "they could do the work if they wanted to."
Gifted students with ADHD might do well academically until they have to work on long-term projects that require sustained effort on subjects they might not be that interested in. They might have an ability to compensate and "cover up" their difficulties with inattention, distractibility, disorganization, planning, time management and follow through. One good source of information is the ERIC Clearinghouse, do a search for "Gifted ADHD" and you'll find many scholarly articles on the subject.
I see many extremely bright adults with ADHD, including doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists, teachers, and others. Often they do well academically because academics are often something that they are interested in. A calculus problem might be just as stimulating for some people as a computer game is for others. Where they struggle is with the mundane tasks of daily life, such as completing needed paperwork at the office, keeping up on the checkbook, bills, and doing the taxes, remembering to send a card to a friend who is ill or when it's their birthday.
Doctors get into trouble with hospitals because they don't dictate discharge summaries in a timely manner, and lawyers get into trouble with their firm because they don't always remember to accurately record their billable hours, and both might have difficulty in relationships because they don't pay attention to what is important. What I'm trying to say is that I am not necessarily as concerned with academic success as I am about the other areas of life that might be affected by ADHD. ADHD tends to be a "life disorder," not just an "academic disorder."
Related Topics: ADHD: Back to School, Help Your Child With ADHD
Gifted students with ADHD might do well academically until they have to work on long-term projects that require sustained effort on subjects they might not be that interested in. They might have an ability to compensate and "cover up" their difficulties with inattention, distractibility, disorganization, planning, time management and follow through. One good source of information is the ERIC Clearinghouse, do a search for "Gifted ADHD" and you'll find many scholarly articles on the subject.
I see many extremely bright adults with ADHD, including doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists, teachers, and others. Often they do well academically because academics are often something that they are interested in. A calculus problem might be just as stimulating for some people as a computer game is for others. Where they struggle is with the mundane tasks of daily life, such as completing needed paperwork at the office, keeping up on the checkbook, bills, and doing the taxes, remembering to send a card to a friend who is ill or when it's their birthday.
Doctors get into trouble with hospitals because they don't dictate discharge summaries in a timely manner, and lawyers get into trouble with their firm because they don't always remember to accurately record their billable hours, and both might have difficulty in relationships because they don't pay attention to what is important. What I'm trying to say is that I am not necessarily as concerned with academic success as I am about the other areas of life that might be affected by ADHD. ADHD tends to be a "life disorder," not just an "academic disorder."
Related Topics: ADHD: Back to School, Help Your Child With ADHD
2 Comments:
I've been diagnosed with fairly high-grade ADD and at points it's been debilitating, but oddly I never had large issues with school or academic situations. It's true that I was under-motivated and under-challenge and did the bare minimum I could to maintain a B average, but I don't remember feeling especially restless or unfocused at school.
My ADD didn't really manifest itself until my early twenties when I was working, and even then it didn't have much to do with academic-related issues. I was just super restless all the time, like perpetual stage fright or the excitement a kid feels on Christmas eve. It got to the point where I started avoiding social situations and lost my ability to sit through movies or just listen to music. I would hyper-focus on an activity for 10 minutes, and then shift to another, and then another before getting all worked up and crashing.
So I'd agree. ADD is far from just being an 'academic disorder'. For those who really understand and suffer from the condition, it can be something that affects and sometimes consumes many different areas of a persons life.
I have a feeling that this is what is affecting my husband. He does okay in school, as long as its a class hes interested in. But getting him to finish a load of dishes...
In school they mis-understood what was wrong and put him in special edu classes. This just made things worse since he was bored to death and was hyper on top of it.
Thanks for helping understand him a bit better and hopefully what to look for with our son (who appears to be hyper but doesnt seem to be add, but hes still really young)
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