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.
We now know that individuals that fit into these categories not only have their own unique challenges, but they also share many similarities as well. Not only that, but they can occur together. In fact, about 50% of gifted children also have ADHD which adds complexity and additional challenges.
In children, the ADHD-positive case frequency was 15.38% in the gifted group and 7.69% in the control group (odds ratio [OR] = 2.18, p = 0.288).
ADHD can make completing tasks such as school work, homework, or work projects much more difficult. However, there is no clear link between ADHD and IQ. A person may have a high, average, or low IQ score and also have ADHD. ADHD may cause a person to interrupt in class or perform poorly on tests.
› they may have a high activity level with little need for sleep (ditto for ADD (ADHD)!) › they may be emotionally intense and engage in power struggles (ditto for ADD (ADHD)!) › and they may often question rules and traditions (ditto for ADD (ADHD)!)
Even when academic performance is high, the hidden cost of ADD (ADHD) is often taking a toll. Gifted students with ADD (ADHD) often struggle with anxiety, even when grades are high. They may suffer from boredom when required to do unnecessary, repetitive work that less gifted students may need.
Conversely, the attention disorder may be so strong that the child underperforms, masking their giftedness. Finally, it is also possible that the giftedness and the attention disorder hide each other, called the masking effect.
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.
It may depend where you live. While we like to think everyone is special, some people have extraordinary abilities — intellectual, artistic, social, or athletic. Many experts believe only 3 to 5 percent of the population is gifted, though some estimates reach 20 percent.
High IQ may “mask” the diagnosis of ADHD by compensating for deficits in executive functions in treatment-naïve adults with ADHD.
However, there is another reason to lower the IQ cutoff for giftedness below 130. For example, the most widely used studies on gifted education identify gifted scores in the range of 115–129 IQ points for students who are non-native English speakers or come from low-education families (e.g., Crabtree et al. 2019).
If a child is constantly fidgeting, squirming in their seat, or getting up to move around, this may be a sign of ADHD. Gifted children with ADHD often have trouble sitting still for long periods. Another sign of ADHD is if a child has difficulty completing tasks or following instructions.
ADHDers can achieve success – but this usually takes a lot of effort and drive. You can see this in the many successful people who have ADHD. Molly Seidel only discovered that she had ADHD in 2022, a year after winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
While gifted children may not be any more susceptible to mental health issues as other adolescents, there are certain aspects of giftedness that may influence or amplify a gifted child's experience of mental health issues.
Being gifted runs in families. If your gifted child has brothers or sisters, there's a bigger chance that they might be gifted too. But they might not be gifted in the same way. For example, one gifted child might be advanced in music and their gifted sibling might be passionate about spiritual learning.
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.
The development of high ability is influenced both by characteristics of the child (including genetic predispositions and aptitudes) and by environmental factors. Giftedness is therefore always subject to genetic influences, although these influences are not exclusive.
For instance, among the 18 studies under scrutiny that did not explicitly state an IQ cut-off point the mean range of IQ among individuals with ADHD reported in the studies is from 102 to 110. Given that lower IQ is associated with ADHD this suggests that individuals with ADHD may be inaccurately represented.
1. Myth: “They've always done well in school, so I don't think they have ADHD.” Truth: Lots of kids with ADHD do well in school, especially in younger grades where there is less homework to complete.
Individuals with ADHD often perform at a lower level on intelligence tests than those without ADHD, because these tests require sustained mental effort.
According to the Davidson Institute, The definition of gifted child burnout is chronic exhaustion that stems from a mismatch between the individual and their current educational environment.
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.
Many people with ADHD struggle to learn new things because several ADHD symptoms affect their focus, time management, and organization. Getting easily distracted and being inattentive, for instance, are not conducive for learning.