Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Can ADHD come on at school age?

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master of none - I have absolutely no advice to give on the ADHD as I don't know much about it, but your comment about your daughter having a rich fantasy life and getting lost in acting out stories with her dolls and stuffed animals for hours on end reminded me of Agatha Christie's autobiography. This is exactly how she spent her days as a child!!! And look how things turned out for her!

I do think her great imagination needs to be nurtured on some sort of level, but you're right, she does need to work on compartmentalizing in order to get anything done. My DS10 has had some trouble paying attention in school (he also has a rich fantasy life!) and it turns out it is partially due to a visual disability. Things have also gotten better as he's gotten older.

Hopefully someone will have some great advice for you on ADHD.

As a daydreamer myself who has tried to channel that tendency in a productive fashion...

Have you tried to get her to write? Great poetry and fiction (ala Agatha Christie!) can come out of people with glazed-over eyes.

Even if her compositions are created on a voice recorder or some other oral method--in case handwriting slows her down too much--it might be a way to get her out of dream mode in her day-to-day life.

I don't know if it would work, but it might help.

FWIW (not much), she doesn't sound ADHD to me. Just not interested in what's going on in school when she can turn to her rich imagination instead. But I'm about as far from an expert on the subject as you can get!

Waving madly---------


PLEASE- look into Dabrowski's overexcitabilites. Specifically intellectual overexcitabilities.


MON- you just describe me and DD5! This caused me to overachieve big time in school. It's something I'm definately keeping an eye on for her.
I LITERALLY stared out the window for 8 grades! Not good.
Unfortunately I don't have any solutions, I'm looking into it myself.

I have no idea if overexcitabilities are causing this for your DD,but you may want to check into it.

Neato

FWIW,

In answer to your question, yes, ADD/ADHD can present in the early school years. In fact many in the field say that you really can't accurately assess ADD/ADHD until the early school years. However, while a child can certainly be both gifted and ADD/ADHD, it is a label to be very wary about.
I have been searching for about 3 years to find a Psychiatrist that can truly answer that question for our son. So far what we get is that he looks like he is ADD/ADHD combined type. However, we do not medicate and his behaviors are slowly improving. If your daughter has been in an academic setting that has not challenged her, she has also probably picked up some bad coping techniques. It will take time for her to learn to tune into the class instead of daydream I think you are right to work with her on paying attention and providing other outlets for her wonderful imagination.

We have a good friend who retired after being an elementary principal for 25+ years. He's convinced that a lot of ADHD symptoms are brought on by not enough sleep and/or not enough (appropriate) physical activity.
You could be right on the mark about your DD needing the exercise.

Interesting. We had DD initially evaluated by psyd for ADHD, we were worried about her behavior. Our pediatrician said before he would recommend any treatment for it, he wanted to do a sleep study to rule out sleep disturbances.
We never went that far because psyd. ruled out ADHD.

I don't know much about it either, but I do have a friend whose doctor thought her daughter was ADD/ADHD. She questioned it and did some research and found that allergies can cause some of the same symptoms you describe. Sure enough, the daughter was allergice to several things (can't remember what they are). You might check out that angle if things don't improve with the other suggestions here.

Interesting. I'd not heard that.

GT kids do seem to be more prone to allergies than ND kids, so there's another factor to play with...

Interesting article I just found on Yahoo, it talks about exercise, sports especially, improving mental health by improving moods. I know GS8 is in a better mood when he gets lots of exercise. Of course, I'm in a better mood when I don't have to go along on those long hikes

I've heard good things about this book. Spark: The science behind exercise and the brain There is even a chapter in the book I believe about ADHD. the author has a website. There are also websites from individual schools who are using this exercise program and seeing great results. I'm waiting for it from my library.

I start running tomorrow !!!!



















If I got up on time.....

How interesting that you mention Spark! I happened to see this book at my library last week and I am just now thorough with my other selections and starting to read it.

I'm quite sure I have undiagnosed ADD, and I have 2 kids who have ADD. We've tried all kinds of dietary tweaking but not really any specific exercise program. Ds who is not hyper has always done sports, and dd who IS hyperactive is an avid equestrian, but we can only afford for her to ride once a week. She is very fit, as she is constantly moving and running around, but I do wonder if we could offset the extraneous activity with a structured program.

FWIW, I run 6 days a week and do push ups and sit ups every day. It's not a terribly rigoruous workout, but it is very regular. I'm still scatter brained, though it may be that my multi year sleep deprivation overrides the small benefit from regular exercise.