Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional adhd and school tests

The weird and important thing to understand about ADHD is that it isn't about being unable to pay attention. It's about unable to control where your attention goes.

In particular, your attention only wants to go to those things you find intrinsically motivating.

So when the task is engaging, attention is there. Task is not engaging, attention goes elsewhere. It looks SO much like "choosing to pay attention when it interests you", but it is genuinely extremely difficult for the person with ADHD to control this, in ways that are really hard to see when you don't have ADHD. It isn't a choice. But it sure looks like one.

People without ADHD, faced with a task that is not intrinsically motivating, draw on their extrinsic motivators to get the job done: they're not interested in the task itself, but they do care about the grade, or passing the course, or what their teacher thinks, or.... or.... and those external drivers are enough to get the job done. People with ADHD aren't very good at making a meaningful connection to those bigger picture issues, and they don't seem to be able to draw on external motivators to drive them the same way.

As a for instance, my son passionately loves hard math. And the harder the math, the less basic errors he makes. Give him a test full of complex problem solving, and he'll ace it for sure. Give him a worksheet of grade-level calculations, though, and it will be riddled with mistakes. He just can't keep his attention focused well enough on that uninteresting work, no matter how hard he tries. And boy will it look like he wasn't trying.

All that to say, if your son in some way finds those tests intrinsically motivating, sure he can do well, ADHD or not. The question is, overall, can he control where the attention goes, or does it go where it wants, with or without him? In my house, the result is a DS bewildered and bitterly frustrated with himself because he just can't seem to stick to the thing and get it done, even though every else can.

Another thought: ADHD and executive function issues tend to go hand in hand, and as a result the effects of the two are often mixed up in descriptions. However, it is possible to have one without the other, which might result in someone "failing to check" what might seem like key boxes in making a diagnosis.