Indentification of Giftedness and ADHD

Terry, My son is gifted, ADHD, and LD in written expression and processing disorder. We have been going from one doc to the next since kindergarten and he is in 6th grade now. If I had known about neuropsychologist then it would have saved me a LOT of money!! Please take her and get her evaluated in the next yr. or so. Most problems don’t show up until they get older and there is more written work to output etc. Your daughter may or may not need any accomodations but I would certainly want to see her strengths and weaknesses so that you can work on her strengths and remediate(if possible) any weaknesses. I can tell you if she is gifted and ADHD she is not the “Norm” so the school usually cares less. They don’t have time to work with a child that doesn’t fit the NORM. At least this has been my experience. Good Luck!!! Jan

I may put it off to next year since the current teacher is doing better with my daughter than last year’s teacher. Last year the teacher filled out forms that the Pediatrician provided to us (The Anser System). Are there any questionaires (online?) that I need to have the 2nd grade teacher fill out this year so that that her input is not lost or is that not too important. What forms are recommended.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Terry

TerryB,

I never post here anymore, but I have been where you are and I really think it is critical that you don’t wait another year. My son is profoundly gifted, with inattentive ADHD. At 5 years old he was diagnosed with dyspraxia, so we started him in OT. The neurologist we saw at the time told us that LD commonly accompanied dyspraxia and that we should watch closely for signs of it. In kindergarten, he seemed to be improving, but in first grade, he began to self-destruct and was diagnosed with severe LDs, mainly in written expression but also affecting his reading (specifically, phonological awareness problems). At that time, he looked nothing like a gifted child, at least no when he was at school. He also did not look like a classic ADHD child. Until he was privately tested, no one at school believed that there were any serious LDs or ADHD at work. We had him privately tested again and learned the truth. We are lucky enough to live in a school district that offers a special education classroom for gifted children with LD. He was accepted into that program and received lots of one on one help with his LD and even more challenge in his areas of giftedness. Eventually, he began taking medication for his ADHD which helped him to be more receptive to the remediation he was receiving. We learned that the largest part of his learning difficulties came from the ADHD. Once that was addressed, other things began to fall into place. He spent from second though fifth grade in that class, then left to attend a private school for gifted children. He is now in 7th grade and is a straight A student who does not hate school and thinks of himself as someone who can succeed. By contrast, many of the gt/ld children in his classes over the years who were not as lucky as he was and did not get identified and begin receiving help until fourth or fifth grade are continuing to struggle. They hate school, even though they are hungry to learn. I feel certain that if we had waited, my son would not be where he is today. Gifted children with ADHD or LD are so easily discouraged and they crave learning. When they don’t get what they need, they tend to disengage and the older they get, the harder it is to help them. These children are uncommonly good at using their gifts to work around their weaknesses, but they are so much better at that if the adults who teach them know precisely what those weaknesses are and can offer specific guidance on how to sidestep them. So, I would encourage you to have the testing done now and to do everything you possibly can to ensure that your daughter continues to be taught at a level commensurate with her intelligence.

Andrea

I just realized how lucky I am that our school has been pulling my daughter out of “reading” so that she can do research in the library. Today she mentioned how bored she is with reading at grade level with the class. Even though she gets frustrated using the computer during “research” she feels it is well-worth the trade-off. If she is not identified as gifted next year she might not end up liking school as much as she does this year. Thanks for all the advice Jan and Andrea. Terry

Terry,

Do you think she is “globally” gifted? You didn’t mention any other subjects, other than the reading. How is her math abiity?

I ask because I really feel it is important to address this as early as possible. If the math is really easy for her, she may come to expect everything to come this easily. I think it is especially important in the early years to have challenging work in this area. If they don’t have to work at it, when the math gets more complicated they aren’t prepared for it. Suddenly you may have a child who says she doesn’t like math or isn’t good at it. It is harder on them then if they had appropriate work from the beginning. My oldest son had a difficult timemaking this adjustment in 3rd grade. I don’t think he understood that teachers were there to teach you how to do something. Previously he had been floating along, showing the teachers what he already knew.

These early years form her opinion of what school is.

Molly

Molly, I would be surprised if she were gifted in Math. She pulls a 91 average by simply doing her homework. She whips through the Math homework real fast and gets frustrated if she can’t understand something immediately. When she gets stuck on a problem, I know that I have to crank out an explanation fast and accurately or we will have a break down. She’ll yell or even throw her pencil. I tell her over and over again that she isn’t suppose to know Math before it is explained to her. I guess that I don’t know how someone can be gifted in a subject that she resists so strongly. She does naturally love Science, Art and Reading and pursues them in and outside of school.

Math will hopefully teach my daughter patience. Your son sounds similar to my younger child that is probably globally gifted. There already preparing for her to enter Kindergarten because she has an anxiety disorder that is fed by boredom. She is already reading phonetically and adding up to 14 in her head (add thinks it is fun!) Isn’t is strange how these really smart kids have something else “wrong” with their brains? I’m sure it’s not true of all smart kids but certainly many that I have known.

Terry

Terry,

I think it is pretty common in these kids that in the preschool years they love numbers and discovering math. Then they get into the classroom, and the pace is so slow and everything is so repetitive, it doesn’t take long before they dislike math. I would start advocating for advanced math now. And doing fun extracurricular math at home.

A similar thing is happening with my 5th grader and science this year. I think it demonstrates why science often goes from being fascinating to young children and dreaded by older children. My 5th grader really wants to study physics. Instead for the second year in a row he spent 9 weeks studying the life cycle of a plant and using scientific method to learn the effects of different growing conditions. Last year when he did this it was bad enough. Doing it again this year was like torture. He says none of us is going to be farmers, why do we have to keep doing this same thing (we live in a metro area). And 9 weeks is just too long for this topic.

Molly

[quote=”TerryB”]Hi,

I have a 2nd grade daughter that probably is ADHD/Gifted and I have no idea what else. She’s doing well academically.

It seems to me like you know fairly well how your daughter’s brain works. If money is no issue and your daughter isn’t one to mind or question the time spent with a neuropsychologist, then it does no harm. If money is any kind of an issue, it wouldn’t seem well spent to invest in a neuropsychologist. Your district is already pulling her out for enrichment and they have nothing else to offer her until the 4th grade, right?

It’s very common for ADD/ADHD children to have social issues. They don’t always pick up the social cues and they tend to react and act without thinking.

Schools tend to use one of several tests to identify gifted children. I’ve encountered many ADD/ADHD chiildren who do quite well on those tests.

Good luck.

I am told that what our school does is give a 10th grade level test to the 3rd graders. Depending on how they do on that test will determine whether the child is identified as gifted or not. I know of one gifted child that recieved a 70 on the test and is in the program. I’m not sure what the actual cut-off is. I’m afraid that a tough test will discourage my daughter from even completing the test without tears. She will probably think that she is dumb because she won’t be able to answer a number of questions correctly. I guess I will need to talk to the school about this and find out if independent-testing is accepted as an alternative to the schools process of identification.