Ever been told your child has ADHD?
Tuesday June 13, 2006
Sigh. Yes, many times. Does my child have ADHD? No. This is not to say that it's not possible for children to have ADHD and be gifted. Unfortunately, however, it's quite common for some people to misinterpret a gifted child's behavior and see ADHD where it does not exist. The reason for the mistake is that the similarities in the characteristics of bored gifted children and children with ADHD are quite striking. Gifted boys seem to be misdiagnosed much more often than gifted girls. If someone has suggested that your child might have ADHD, you will want to take a look at this checklist of behaviors before getting your child a medical or pyschological evaluation.
Poll:If you are the parent of a gifted child, has anyone ever suggested that your child has ADHD?
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Poll:If you are the parent of a gifted child, has anyone ever suggested that your child has ADHD?
- Yes, someone told me that my son has ADHD
- Yes, someone told me that my daughter has ADHD
- No, no one has ever told me my child has ADHD
More polls from your guide
Comments
What do you want to call it? ADHD, Gifted, Troubled…some kids have it all. Their overly sensitive, under stimulated brains do not allow them to function in socially acceptable ways. We knew our child was gifted well before he was tested, and we knew he had ADHD well before he was tested for that. We also knew that he had other problems that did not allow him to feel empathy as readily as my wife or I.
What happened to him the first time he was medicated for ADHD? He had a huge breakthrough, and realized how some of his actions affected others. He cried, and cried, “I never realized how mean I am to Hanna, I can’t believe she still likes me.” My son needed and still needs the medication, so he can function and learn and be the person he is capable of being.
I agree that some very few kids are labeled ADHD when in fact they are just gifted. However, I’ve seen kids who were gifted, and not medicated that were ostracized. They paid an enormous emotional toll for there inability to control their (ADHD) impulses. If the parents do the research into giftedness and ADHD, they will know better than any doctor, or teacher, or reporter if their child is one or the other or both.
Below is an essay I wrote a few years ago showing how a needed medication allowed my child to do what was needed of him.
Tell Me Its Not Real!
Why would a child torture himself for three hours over a half hour’s worth of homework?
I just wrote a three hundred and fifty word analytic description of the last two nights with my son’s hysteria, then hit the delete key. You see my son has ADHD, and living with him, at times, can be pure hell. There is nothing analytical about it. It feels as if driven by raw emotion. He is a kid who tries to do the right thing, but something in his neural wiring doesn’t allow him to focus as you or I might.
He mentally tortures himself when he sits down to write. It is like trying to get a person who is scared of snakes to milk a herd of rattlers. If you were walking by outside of our house you would hear cries of anguish as if a starving prisoner were being beaten while his captures gorged on a turkey feast with all of the trimmings. The only time I’ve seen a more tortured soul was when I witnessed a man getting his back scrubbed free of the dead burnt skin at UNC Burn Center.
Last night we gave our son a dose of Ritalin just to get him though his homework, without hurting himself. After three hours of his crying and waling we broke routine and gave him a dose at night, and it worked. After waiting an hour for the medicine to take affect, he sat down and wrote for half an hour, twice as much as he would normally, and without a tear.if fact he smiled when he was done…he was so proud that he was able to do it.
So when I hear these divisive snark-mongers claim that ADHD isn’t real and that we are over prescribing to our young, when I hear them say that we are bad parents, or lazy or both, all I can think is how lucky they are not to be walking in my sandals, because every cry my son makes is multiplied ten times in my heart.