I met with another parent this week whose children are now grown, but whose son (when he was younger) was quite similar to C . While she never described her son as gifted, she said he was eventually diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). She said it may be worthwhile having C checked and instantly I was put on guard. I told her that C is gifted and that many of the behaviors can overlap, leading to an incorrect diagnosis and unnecessary treatment. She responded by saying that even so, it couldn’t hurt to learn about about ADD and perhaps talk to a doctor about it. I have to admit that she had a point. I had done practically no reading on ADD or ADHD and there really was no down side to learning more about it, other than the time factor. I think I had purposely avoided the topic because of the things I’ve come across in the gifted community about misdiagnoses.
The truth is that some gifted children do have ADD, so there is no reason to blindly rule out the possibility as I may have been. Hoagies’ Gifted has links to some articles, including one by Webb and Latimer that compares behaviors between gifted and ADD children. The authors say that while ADD children are often inattentive, gifted children are only inattentive some of the time (like when they’re bored). And while both gifted and ADHD kids may have high energy, in gifted children the energy is more directed while with ADHD it’s more random. The authors say “The activities of children with ADHD tend to be both continual and random; the gifted child’s activity usually is episodic and directed to specific goals.” I think that is an important point.
While some of the articles I read made me certain that C does not have ADD, this article by ADDvance made me second guess. The author contends that ADD in gifted children can present itself much differently than in other children, plus can be hidden quite well. She says that problems can then develop in Middle School or beyond when children take on more responsibility and must be more organized and attentive to details. Some of the traits she described reminds me of my husband, who feels at times that he has undiagnosed ADD. Ironically, as he’s learned more about giftedness this past year while dealing with C, he’s come to realize that many of his “symptoms” could just be that instead.
I suppose a professional opinion would be valuable, but am worried about choosing someone who is unfamiliar with gifted children and C being misdiagnosed as so many other children have been. I also am not crazy about the possibility of C having yet another label, though have to admit that if he were diagnosed with ADD it could open some doors as he may then be covered under the stricter guidelines of Pennsylvania’s chapter 14. Still, unless we could prove that ADD impacted C’s performance at school, they could ignore even a medical diagnosis.
