Wow ... you have just described my child too. 6 yo girl, in the 99 percentile too, and also unmotivated, unfocused, not intense, no perseverance, and very scattered in interest and attention. Also doesn't take well to instructions from ANYBODY. I am supposed to challenge her intellectually so that she will be less bored (all sorts of behavioural issues come up when she's bored), but have not been successful because she doesn't want to learn what I teach her or try to interest her in. And when I try to go along with what she is interested in, she doesn't stay in it long enough to do much learning on the topic. In any activity that I have signed her up for, whether gym, chess, ballet, etc all at her request, a common thread emerges. First the teachers will all tell me how bright she is, and at the first few lessons she will certainly look like she is the best in the group and doing well. A few more lessons down the road, she is all over the place, spinning and rolling on the floor, not listening to what is going on and generally aggravating the coaches so much that this time they are not telling me how bright she is, but what a problem she is. I'm afraid I don't have any answers for you ... but if it helps, you are not alone! I am trying to accept and learn that my child is a visual spatial and divergent thinker, and that she does not look like the "typical" gifted person or genius that we have come to believe from watching TV - u know the kind with obsessive interests and self-motivation, high achieving, etc.
