Gifted children suffer when undue expectations exist without consideration of other complex characteristics that define their day-to-day experience. Children identified with ADHD become deficit-focused when their strengths are neither recognized nor celebrated.
Many gifted children are being mis-diagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The gifted child's characteristics of intensity, sensitivity, impatience, and high motor activity can easily be mistaken for ADHD.
The difference between ADHD and psychomotor overexcitabilities is that a child with ADHD needs to move and fidget constantly, while a gifted child with overexcitabilities does it more with purpose.
Hyperactive is a word often used to describe gifted children as well as children with ADHD. As with attention span, children with ADHD have a high activity level, but this activity level is often found across situations (Barkley, 1990). A large proportion of gifted children are highly active too.
Early and rapid learning
One of the most common characteristics of gifted students is their ability to learn things early and rapidly.
Gifted Identification
L.A. Unified identifies students as gifted/talented in seven ability categories: Intellectual, High Achievement, Specific Academic, Leadership, Creative, Visual Arts and Performing Arts.
When do signs of giftedness appear? Signs of giftedness can appear as early as infancy and continue during the toddler and preschool years. Testing for giftedness and high IQ, however, usually takes place around age 5.
Many children with ADHD have other disorders as well as ADHD, such as behavior or conduct problems, learning disorders, anxiety and depression1,2. The combination of ADHD with other disorders often presents extra challenges for children, parents, educators, and healthcare providers.
Studies have shown that 50% of kids who are gifted have ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. But that doesn't mean that 50% of people who have ADHD are Gifted.
Sound: Many people with ADHD are hypersensitive to auditory stimulants such as multiple simultaneous conversations, loud music, fireworks, or grating noises. For these individuals, such sounds could result in a stress reaction.
The causes of overdiagnosis may include changes in diagnostic thresholds, poor diagnostic practices, and advertising by the pharmaceutical industry. Overdiagnosis leads to overtreatment, and dramatic increases in prescriptions for adult ADHD during the last decade should arouse concern.
Symptoms of Sensory Overload in ADHD
When an ADHDer is greatly affected by a certain stimulus, such as a sound or smell, this can lead to the following signs and symptoms: Headaches, dizziness, or light-headedness. Feeling ill, faint, or nauseous. Increased anxiety and stress.
It's a myth that ADHD is only prevalent in young boys who misbehave or do badly in school. Girls who are gifted and receive good grades are equally likely to experience challenges and setbacks from ADHD.
Does ADHD affect IQ? A popular misconception is that all children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are naturally smarter and have a higher IQ than children without ADHD. However, there is no correlation between this condition and intelligence.
With ADHD children, we use "The 30% Rule" to set realistic expectations. The 30% Rule goes like this. Take the age of your ADHD child and subtract 30% from it. If your son is 12, for example, subtracting 30% of 12 (3.6 years) from 12 gives you 8.4.
Kids with ADHD often have behavior problems. They get angry quickly, throw tantrums, and refuse to do things they don't want to do. These kids aren't trying to be bad. The problem is that ADHD can make it hard for them to do things they find difficult or boring.
Although there are no standard IQ levels of intellectual giftedness, some experts suggest the following IQ ranges: Mildly gifted: 115 to 129. Moderately gifted: 130 to 144. ighly gifted: 145 to 159.
Both giftedness and autism fall on a spectrum, so while there may be individuals who clearly fit into one box or another, some behaviors might be more ambiguous and require additional information, context, or professional opinions.
Research reflects that giftedness does “run in families”: for a gifted child, their genetically-related relatives — siblings and/or parents — are likely to also be gifted, though there are plenty of exceptions.