Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources "Gifted Should Not Be Confused with Disorder"

New Psychology Today article, "Gifted Should Not Be Confused with Mental Disorder." http://tinyurl.com/giftednotdisorder

Interesting article, thank you. This quote really spoke to me - we are treating our DD for ADHD because SHE is suffering, we get so much flack for it from her school because they see ADHD as a problem that effects everyone else as much or more as the child in question... She's not bothering anyone else, ergo we are abusive to treat her. SHE is the one that is most effected by her ADHD.

Thanks so much for posting this, Mark. I'll be adding this to my "ammunition" I use to keep my kiddo from getting labeled inappropriately.

Awesome article--thanks so much for posting and to SENG for sponsoring, and of course to the author! I really hope this school of thought becomes more prevalent--one would think the 37% number in itself would be a wake-up call.

By the way, I was daydreaming about a related article, if anyone wants to write it feel free--something like, "Where would Bill Gates (/Mozart/take your pick) be today as a 9-year-old? Drugged up and counseled out?" ("Counseled out" is the term given by some to the practice in private schools of advising a student and family that their 'needs can no longer be served,' or to put it more honestly, the school just doesn't want to deal with you any more as a student). I actually don't know if Bill Gates had trouble in school, but I would imagine that a number of highly intelligent, highly successful adults of today had trouble in school but by virtue of growing up 20-30-40 years ago were not diagnosed and/or drugged. I think it would be interesting to find out, and would like to read an article by somebody else about it...please!

Thanks again for the post.

"Caution is particularly necessary in diagnosing kids. They are so developmentally labile and have such a short track record that diagnostic mistakes are frequently made and once made are extremely difficult to undo."

I must say, this is the kind of thing that paralyzes me as the parent of a child who sort of appears to have this/that issue, kind of, but does she, or is it...?

I'm all for caution; but IMO the risk of under-diagnosing is about equal to that of over-diagnosing. And I don't know how hard it is to lose a diagnosis that proves to be erroneous; I suspect not as hard as trying to get services or help without a dx.

DeeDee

You could "lose" the diagnosis, but you may not lose the altered way that people perceive you, from family to teachers to friends. There is also the danger of constantly attributing behaviors or problems to a diagnosis when they may be attributable to another outside cause.

If you need services in school, then you need them. At present, my child is functioning very well in school with no services. Could things be better? I don't doubt it, but things could be better at school for lots of children. Actually, my other child, who has no diagnosis and no possible likely diagnosis that I could imagine (other than giftedness) is the one who is miserable at school!

I think it depends somewhat on the diagnosis. We had and then lost an ADHD diagnosis, but it apparently will be in DD9's 504 forever, and we will forever be asked if we have any plans to medicate her for her nonexistent ADHD.

[quote=Dbat]By the way, I was daydreaming about a related article, if anyone wants to write it feel free--something like, "Where would Bill Gates (/Mozart/take your pick) be today as a 9-year-old? Drugged up and counseled out?" ("Counseled out" is the term given by some to the practice in private schools of advising a student and family that their 'needs can no longer be served,' or to put it more honestly, the school just doesn't want to deal with you any more as a student). I actually don't know if Bill Gates had trouble in school, but I would imagine that a number of highly intelligent, highly successful adults of today had trouble in school but by virtue of growing up 20-30-40 years ago were not diagnosed and/or drugged. I think it would be interesting to find out, and would like to read an article by somebody else about it...please!

Not quite a scientific article, but it is a nice article.

www.nextstage-edu.com%2F2013%2F01%2F16%2Fspecial-delivery-unwrapping-the-gift-of-adhd%2F&h=fAQF2U8xv&s=1 $