Interesting thought. I have a family member that is highly gifted....not sure what IQ is exactly. Anyhow, he has ADHD as well. I have often wondered where one ended and one started...sometimes it is hard to say which is a trait of which. Instead of doing homework assignments in college, he re-wrote the syllabus because there were mistakes. He always did things like this. He failed most of his classes and dropped out. He wasn't diagnosed or treated with ADHD until adulthood, he saw a commercial and realized that everything they described applied to him and went to see his doctor. Unfortunately now he suffers from depression as well because he wasn't treated for so long and hasn't been able to hold down a job, etc. It's a long story. But anyhow, he clearly has ADHD...but he is clearly gifted as well. He is able to spend long hours on projects...but gets distracted with elements and doesn't finish things often. He will go off on tangents constantly (in work, in conversation, in everything). Not sure how I got into this heartwarming story : ) I guess it just made me think about it. But while he does clearly have elements of hyperfocusing, because he is gifted I was never sure exactly whether it was a part of ADHD or giftedness.

This made me smile

We are doing the license plates too only not the state names but rather the numbers. My DS7 has papers everywhere with these codes on them from license plates. "Drive faster mom to catch up to that car" is what I hear a lot. He then looks for random patterns, number patterns, etc. He told me which number was the most common. I think it was 1 and 5. Too funny. So if you see me coming up behind you and squinting at your car, now you know what I am doing.

License plates popular here too! DS5 had a stretch this summer where we had to stop in front of every parked car when we were walking anywhere so he could make up funny words for the 3 letters in the license plates.

The license plate thing is pretty funny. DS5 memorizes license plates often...but for a while he would only pay attention to the first 3 letters. So he would say things like "hey mom...they have the same license plate as we do" He found a few cars with the same first 3 letters. Now do I know our license plates? No. But he knows them on both of our cars, as well as some of our friends cars. Whatever floats your boat.

So funny! Mine are so obsessed that we saw a plate we couldn't recognize while in NJ. DH asked the family where their license plate was from. Family looked at him quizzically -- they spoke little English and had no idea what license plate meant. Turned out they were from Mexico City! We're the ones who are driving too close trying to read the words hidden under the frames. ;-)

Well we've made some progress. DS6 was advanced to the 1/2 classroom for math. He's still a bit below what he can do but I think they'll catch up and he needs to practice his writing, which is horrible, so I'm happy with the arrangement. I asked about reading, the area where he's far ahead, and she said that won't change for a few more weeks yet.

Yippee! for Math
Boo! for Reading
Yippee! for 'the teacher is still talking to you!'

I hope your few weeks pass quickly and happily,
Grinity

First of all - Don't call it hyperfocus! Call it Intensity! Persistence, curiosity, or OverExcitability!

Verbally praise any signs of flexability. Any at all! Then get out the video camera, because it's great to look back on those days when the fire of learning is burning to bright.

Smiles,
Grinity

skyward, JJsMom, Jamie, Kareninminn - sounds like things are going well - that's great!

My DS has been sick all week, so no school for him. It's probably a good thing, gives him a break from school, and hopefully a permanent break from the behavior issues - lol! We'll see what next week brings.....