The way that ADHD was best described to me was that most people process information and in that split second between thought and action most of us complete 4 processes which a person with ADHD is not able to do either in part or in whole. There is a split nano second between thought start to action. It is during this time when those with ADHD are different.
1. Minds movie theatre: a quick movie in our mind where we see it played out before actually doing it. We run scenarios in our head in a split second with the focus of how it will play out. The person with ADHD processes too quickly and misses that movie to varied degrees 2. Minds eye.. same concept, only a photograph of how the action will look 3. mind's ear/ voice ... again same concept only running the verbal scenario in our mind before saying it. How will the other person hear it? 4. Can't think of the last one, but you get the idea. It might be feeling.. how will the other person feel when i do this action? I have thought that you could expound on that analogy to include other parts of the thought process.
What an ADHD child needs to learn how to do and what medication can temporarily help them with is slowing down that process, until a slower process is learned. The medication can help to temporily slow it down until either there is maturity/ learned behavior, etc. I envision that a gifted child has a sped up process as well, but the processes are whole, ,meaning the scenarios are run through in entirety.. just faster and maybe more of them, hence an imaginative flair to the process.
This analogy really helped me in understanding my son and was a big ah ahh moment with coming to accept his ADHD. The person who told me this is my son's psychiatrist (who gives him meds- no therapy ). He also explained that there really is not a behavior component to ADHD at this level, although the ADHD can be compounded by behavioral issues/ other medical conditions, ie OCD. What needs to happen is that, in order to adapt, the child needs to change the incomplete process to a whole one. Being congniscent of this is a big first step. Behavior needs to change to an optimum processing point.
Interesting on the brain maturation.. and is in line with this analogy. I agree that there is a blurring. Because of that, it is doubly difficult to accurately diagnose the ADHD.
