Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Video-Dr. Webb speaking about misdiagnoses

I came across this video of Dr. Webb speaking about misdiagnoses of gifted children. It is a nice overview of the subject.

https://videos.med.wisc.edu/videos/32540

How nice to hear someone from my Alma Mater. Very interesting lecture - thanks for sharing.

I suppose this is a rhetorical question and a bit of a rant, but what DO YOU DO when it's not ADHD/ODD/ASD or any of those other "misdiagnoses" and it IS JUST gifted behavior? That's what frustrates me about vidoes like this. I don't understand what else to DO.

I've heard Dr. Webb speak about this before. In his book, for example, he talks about power struggles. His advice? Just avoid them! Huh!

Sorry to get off track. It is a good lecture and very informative.

Just avoid power struggles with your gifted kid... Bwahahahahaha. Sure. That worked for me - and my kids just magically stopped and were well behaved.

I guess what I like about this video is that he is talking to med school students. (At least that's what I discerned, but I was multi-tasking). The more pediatricians and psychiatrists that can be exposed to these concepts the better chance we have of eventually not having a broad brush applied to gifted kids' behaviors.

I feel really fortunate that my son's psychiatrist isn't just putting a label on my son but simply identifying traits that need accommodations or remediation.

Maybe some of the parents who've been in the trenches with these challenges are the ones who need to be writing the advice books on what to do.

I thought that it was a good gifted 101 lecture. I heard nothing new. I guess it gives me new appreciation for the quality of the seminars presented by our school district's gifted and talented department.

(Sorry--at least slightly OT as usual, but please bear with me) After spending this weekend with my delightful DD9 and her cousin, who delighted each other by shouting completely inappropriate lyrics at each other to such songs as "Yellow Submarine" (contributing to a major headache on the part of the adults (mostly me!) in our party who attempted to keep their voices to a not-audible-outside-our-immediate-group level), I am thinking that what we need is to move to an island--or perhaps a city--where there are other like-minded people, so that we are not always having to try to suppress who our kids are. After all, as my sister pointed out, the kids aren't actually doing anything that we haven't seen comedians do on TV--it's just that they're kids (oh, and they're shouting, on a Sunday morning, while traipsing through our neighborhood). I remember hearing a segment on NPR some time ago and IIRC it was about Libertarians (or maybe LGBT persons? seriously, I'm sorry--I can't remember) having a plan to move to a state with a small population (New Hampshire? VT?) so as to basically take over the local/state government and institutions so that they were friendly to such persons. If anyone can afford to buy an island, I would be willing to commit to move there to help establish a 2e Kingdom.

Cheers. I hope your alls' weekend was more relaxing than mine (although some of the songs were pretty funny)

Gee, clearly, then, I've been doing it all wrong...


I guess this is where the British ultimately erred with Mahatma Ghandi, as well, then. They should have just "avoided" making that one a power struggle. Simple!


Laughing at the notion that one could manage to avoid all power struggles with a highly manipulative, highly intelligent, intrinsically motivated and self-deterministic child.
Trust me when I say that even conflict-avoidant doormat-like parents have trouble avoiding power struggles with such children.

Er... don't ask, actually.

In all seriousness, I'm glad that there are people carrying this banner and railing against the over-pathologizing of every quirk and idiosynchrony, of course. This is a really important message.

I just don't think that the clinical perspective necessarily captures some of the-- um-- more interesting aspects of life with a PG kiddo with a challenging disposition. I also wish that there were clearer answers to those moments of parental panic that we all have-- you know, the ones where you think "OMG! Is this normal?? Er-- I mean, is it something that I should try to DO something about?? Er-- I mean, what the heck CAN I DO here?"

So what do you do with a child who has mulishly decided that the SAT just "isn't something that I plan to make a big deal over" when that child is 12 or 13 and truly lacks some ability to see the ramifications in the big picture?? Accept a score in the 80th percentile just because they don't feel like going to the trouble of doing better? Or push as hard as necessary until the child performs at potential (or closer to it, anyway)?

Thanks for the video link. Found it interesting and hit on some great points. I liked his points about differentiating based on whether behaviors are consistent in all situations; such that behaviors that do not show in all situations are more likely to be gifted linked. He also made a nice point about how many symptoms disappear when a child is an environment where they are shown intellectual respect. And best of all, that many adults self-medicate with coffee

Thanks for the link! I just watched the whole thing ... and I don't usually have the patience to listen to lectures! lol Having a little boy just recently diagnosed with PDD-NOS and another boy heading down that path, I could see a lot of both in what he was talking about. Though, not denying ... my boys DO have certain issues that can't be covered up by giftedness. But I am pretty sure we can in their case substitute ADHD with Gifted. Both my boys have food allergies, one more severe than the other and DS4 fits perfectly into the Reactive Hypoglycemia theory!

I have forwarded the link to my son's occupational therapist for her to check out when she has time.

I didn't watch the video, but I think this is not true in all cases. Certainly not for my offspring.

DeeDee