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Today we had our big doctors appointment for our DD6.5. She is a gifted child that seems to learn everything intuitively but struggles with executive skills. Drawing and story writing as her strengths. Completing math worksheets and sitting in her seat are a daily challenge.

The doc was very thorough, going over all of our records and the forms both parents and the school filled out. After a lot of analysis, we decided to give Ritalin a go. The big reason we decided to go with medication is that our DD6.5 is missing out on things that will enrich her life. Piano lessons, gymnastics, theater are all very good for her and she wants to do them. But her lack of focus and problems turning off her imaginational over-excitablity inhibits her ability to do these things. And even though she gets good marks now, I foresee the day when her inability to sit in a seat and focus may hinder her learning.

The best thing that happened today was when the doctor said she wanted DD6.5 evaluated at the Belin-Blanke center in Iowa City, Iowa. She focused as much on our daughter's GIFTEDNESS and her strength as she did on her attention issues. This was SO different from what the school psychologists have done. They just look at pathology. Our doctor says that the people at the BB Gifted Center will be able to find strategies to help teach her since her thinking is so ABSTRACT and she is such a visual-spatial thinker. While she will need to learn to focus some (with the aid of Ritalin we hope), our doctor is promoting the idea that the classroom may have to be adapted to meet her extraordinary needs as well. These are all things that were music to my ears.

We entered terrified, but we left with hope that things are going to better.

I'm not an M.D., so I'm just thinking out loud here.

Six and a half is very young. Today's schools expect children to sit still for far longer than they did in the early 80s and before. IMO, this is unhealthy and the expectation that children can sit still for hours is unrealistic for many kids. Especially if the children are highly creative and highly energetic.

I believe that my son is highly gifted. We haven't done an IQ test, but he's skipped two grades and his current grade isn't much of a challenge for him. He's never taken Ritalin (though it was suggested that we look into it back in kindergarten). Like your daughter, he wouldn't sit still, created distractions (circle time was a big problem), and was generally a huge challenge for his teachers. We had constant meetings about his behavior. Yeesh.

A big part of the problem, which a teacher who taught him for two years finally admitted, was that the work was too easy for him. Some kids act out when the work is too easy.



Repeating: I'm not an MD. I also haven't met your daughter. But here is a thought that occurred to me in reading through your previous messages: does she really have ADD or she just frustrated with boring worksheets? Why should a six-year-old --- a little child --- be expected to sit and focus on something that's too easy? If she can do relatively complex things on a computer, why should she be happy to sit down and count little pictures of fruits or balls or happily do other very basic stuff? Personally, I was not surprised one bit when my six-year-old was getting fidgety when asked to spend hours focusing on stuff that was too easy for him. Who wouldn't?

I don't know your daughter and I don't know how serious her problems with paying attention are. But if she can focus on stories or non-worksheet math problems, why are you convinced that she has ADD? Isn't the ability to hyper-focus kind of the opposite of ADD? A kid in my class in first grade had ADD. He could not sit still and could not focus, and if he was off his meds, it was blazingly obvious to one and all. Phew.

Has anyone asked your daughter why she doesn't want to do those worksheets? When does she concentrate and when does she fidget? Is there a pattern to her behaviors?



Does it get worse after lunch at home? What classes does she have after lunch? Is she tired? Does it still get worse if she's asked to sit down and do something that you've seen her hyperfocus on?

I googled "gifted children" ADD misdiagnosis. This book was one result.

ADD has a very broad definition and we live in a culture that (IMO) labels children with ADD too readily. And the jury is still out on Ritalin and changes to permanent changes in brain chemistry.

Again, I don't know your situation, so if I'm coming across as rude or clueless or otherwise negative, please excuse me. It's just that I've read so many messages here describing kids who sound so much like yours, and are suffering from a poor educational fit rather than ADD. You know your daughter's problems better than anyone. I am only here throwing out questions that may or may not have been asked.

Just my two cents. Well, maybe fifty cents at this point.

I am NO kind of expert, but the current DSM-IV does not allow for a diagnosis of ADHD before age 7. I personally would not medicate unless she was having some serious behavioral or learning problems.

When my son first started having problems we started by adjusting his diet: minimizing sugar, eliminating red and yellow food coloring and signing him up for soccer (extra exercise). Omega 3 supplements can also be helpful.

Good luck.

Actually Val, hyperfocus is considered a symptom of ADHD. And ADHD, particularly inattentive type (which used to be called ADD) is not about the inability to pay attention ever, but the ability to control your attention. Just because a child can read a book or play computer games for hours, or any other activity that the reward is part of the doing, does not mean they are able to make themselves pay attention to somethig boring now for only an abstract later reward (or avoidance of later consequences).

I think it's really hard to diagnose ADHD in the presence of poor school fit, because as you say how much bordem can you expect a 6yr old to tolerate? But the gifted, primarily inattentive type kids who can manage to pass school are the ones that get missed, especially girls - because they aren't bouncing off the walls, picking fights and generally driving everyone else spare.

My DD is nearly 10, in so many respects she is SO much better now than at 6.5, with some improvements due to maturity, some due to OT, diet, piano & swimming, etc. But i cant tell you how much I wished we had pursued an accurate diagnosis at 6.5-7.5 yrs. And while I know that all those things we did before accepting we needed to go for the ADHD and ASD assessments helped her, putting the cart before the horse only made getting a diagnosis that much harder.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I agree that a gifted kid bored out of their brain can be misdiagnosed. But dual diagnosis is a very real possibility and given how under diagnosed girls can be, let alone gifted girls, I do wonder how likely is misdiagnosis v. dual diagnosis? It's oh so appealling to say that it's just over excitability and giftedness. Would that my DD was just over excitable...

I am also NOT an MD, but with our experience with dd10 and the schools begging us to medicate her for ADHD, I am glad I found this list of 50 diagnosis that mimic ADHD. For DD10, we discovered that although gifted, she was also having focal seizures along with being stealth dyslexic and dysgraphic. I am not suggesting that your child is any of those things...here is the list if you like:

http://www.incrediblehorizons.com/mimic-adhd.htm

The decision as to whether or not to medicate for ADHD is tough. It is even tougher when you are not 100% convinced that the diagnosis is correct. As everyone here knows, I've recently gone through this with my HG, dyslexic, dysgraphic DS10 who also has sensory processing disorder. I was very reluctant to believe the ADHD diagnoses, but started the medication merry-go-round last summer. It has been a terrible year of one side effect after another. The medications gave him stomach aches and took his personality away. I was devastated. HOWEVER, we lowered his dosage significantly a few weeks ago and I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER with the outcome. He feels great, his personality is fabulous AND he can concetrate at school! Now, I have to be completely honest and also let you know that his teacher started curriculum compacting about a week and a half ago and that has helped tremendously, too. It is so hard to find the correct answers with gifted kids.

Also, I did a phone consultation yesterday with Dr. Ed Amend. He has written several books on gifted children and on misdiagnosis/dual diagnosis. He was a wealth of information and very friendly. If you are at all questioning your decision, I would highly recommend that you give him a call.

We have started with just a half of the itsy bitty pill three times a day. And so far so good. She is still a creative whirl-wind, making stuff all day. Her spaciness has improved already. We have yet to see if any side effects will arise.

But as for whether or not to medicate, we went back and forth. In the end, these things lead us to give it a try. We were beginning to see real social issues from her distractability. She was REALLY struggling to complete tasks in the classroom. She wasn't able to participate in activities she was really interested in and this seemed to be getting worse. And while reading "Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis" it discussed our exact situation. The stimulant may help her focus, and we can stop the meds whenever we decide. Besides, I take medicine for depression. If a medicine would help her be more successful, then let's give it ago.

Most of all, I am so glad they are getting her in at the B-B Center. There we can access her full range of extra-ordinariness so we can get her the services we need to truly challenge her and tap her amazing creative potential.

I am glad to hear things are going well on the meds.

Just a tip from our own experience, make sure your DD is getting enough to eat! My son did not have much of appetite while on stimulants at all.

I was reading this yesterday and found it to be very interesting. You might as well.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...switch-conventional-schooling-homeschool

The book Simplicity Parenting is really great, too. She apparently got, I think, 68% of the kids in her study functioning so well that they no longer qualified for the diagnosis. It is very worth reading.

We are a pretty "crunchy" family and do whatever we can naturally before going with meds. My DH is convinced ADHD isn't even a real diagnosis and / or that it might be caused by many different things (chaotic lifestyle? certain things in processed foods? simple boredom, because school is a prison? or maybe a real disease caused by environmental toxins?)


I think I would never medicate a young child, but I'm not in your situation, so I don't really know what is going on. I just know these drugs can have serious long term effects...though some of them haven't even been studied well enough.

My sister and her friends took Adderall in college to get better grades. She even managed to get a diagnosis. She does not have it. Taking speed to do homework and study is just so sad and pathetic. ;(

Hah, I always love folks who don't believe ADHD is "real". I always want to let them borrow my DS for a few days. ADHD is very real, and can be seen in MRIs, they show marked differences in brain development. Kids with ADHD who go unmedicated have a much higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse as well as depression and suicide.

Also, Ritalin has been in use for like two decades now, and has been shown to be a safe treatment for ADHD. The key is being certain you have a proper diagnosis. ADHD is still primarily a diagnosis of elimination- you have to rule out sleep disturbances, viral illness, etc. that's where I think many Drs take the shortcut.