Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Hard time following directions

My DS5 is in Kindergarten. Early entrance. Just had the conference with his teacher.

She was commenting on the fact that he does not seem to understand directions very well. Simple tasks he turns into something completely different and does them incorrectly.
A brief background:

1. He was tested at 3 1/2 because we wanted to rule out SPD and a couple of other concerns. They came to the conclusion he is gifted and definitely leaning toward being Visual Spatial. What level gifted we don't know. He maxed out many sections on the test, but missed some on the way. Very uneven. Age related they said. (His 7 yo brother is PG)

2. His way of thinking is VERY unique. He does not seem to have the "regular, straight forward" way of thinking. Very reflective, observant. Thinks "out of the box". Highly abstract.

3. Questions everything. Picking things I say apart, challenging what I say. Asks a million questions if we are to do something new. "What about if...? What happens if...?" Seems to need the big picture to feel OK, otherwise gets anxious.

4. THRIVES on highly challenging, complex ideas. HATES doing easy tasks. Is not afraid of difficult tasks. Gets careless when things are too easy.

Honestly, I know what she is talking about. I see it too. Sometimes he appears....how do I say this..."not very bright", since he can not finish simple tasks his class mates do with ease.Then he turns around a finishes a 3rd grade math sheet (which I bring in) with ease. (This fact the teacher NEVER comments on, but that is another issue...:-/)

I am wondering what this could be? Does anyone have experience with this? Could it be a learning disability, processing issue?

The thing is though, he does grasp much harder concepts with ease and seem to have no problem listening to the instructions. He seems very uneven with what he picks up and doesn't. Also, he was reading (by sight, no phonetic reading) before 3 years of age, but couldn't tell be what a triangle was until he was 4. Seems he gets "stuck" on certain things. Things that he should be able to know and do.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

(((Hugs))), because I know how hard it is to worry about your DC. Have you ruled out auditory processing issues? Some of the behaviors also sound like HG++.

your #3 and #4 are exactly similar to DS7. He was not challenged in K (even with home made work packets at the appropriate level). And I started volunteering as a teaching aide on 1 day a week (when I could go in late to work) to just be there in the class and do some stimulating activities with him as well as to observe him. What I saw was that my DS was not paying attention to anything because it was all unchallenging to him. So, it was hard for him to follow directions because he was not listening to the teacher at all - he was busy observing other kids, interacting with the kid sitting next to him, trying to sharpen his pencil, fiddling with things etc. etc. In our case, we changed schools and the behavior is vastly different now.

And the teacher in K did not care if my DS could finish 5th grade math and LA worksheets - all she said was that a child incapable of neat handwriting would not be accelerated because he had not met the milestones of K learning (neat coloring and writing in this case). So, she never remarked on his academic abilities, because she considered my son "not ready" developmentally for anything other than tracing letters and counting and adding single digits. That year, I used to think sometimes that my son was in a sort of prison with recess being his only breaks (overly dramatic of me, I am sure!).

The fact that your DS grasps harder concepts is a sign that when he pays attention (if things interest him) he can follow along easily. I would strongly suggest that you have your son tested again for giftedness using the WISC (common in our area - I am guessing that maybe he is PG too and is bored) and then decide on how to get challenging work for him in the classroom. Good luck.

Loy58, I was considering and auditory processing issue, but looking at the signs it doesn't fit him. I am also doubting it because he CAN follow instructions if it is something that interests him. I think I will have it checked out though, just in case. It was mentioned when DS7 was tested on the WISC last summer, he might have a mild case of it. (Clearly compensating, but still).I think I will just check them both to rule it out.

Ashley, thank you for your story. The teacher this year doesn't seem to even know about true giftedness. She comes from the "they all even out in 3rd grade" line of thought. I feel it would be talking to a brick wall trying to get her to understand this. Again, not sure what level my son is. He is very different from my older PG son so I have nothing to compare it to.

She did say back in October that he seems to "over think" everything and expect there to be more to it than it is. I would agree with this in many situations. I asked him myself why, sometimes, he doesn't do what the teacher asks. His response was "It is too easy. They do, what is bigger and smaller, and things like that. I just want to think about math."
So I guess that is part of the answer. When I told his teacher this it didn't seem to click with her. She didn't pay much attention to it. Seems she completely want to downplay that anything might have to do with a higher intellectual ability...ugh....sounds familiar?

Next year he will be with the teacher who saved my older sons life, pretty much. She got him to a place where he is happy, advocated for him. My issue is, my older is a textbook PG kid in every area. Math, spelling, reading, writing, information etc. etc. It was hard enough to get him accommodated. I don't want my younger son's inability to follow directions be an arguing point for the school. Especially if it is all due to him not being stimulated enough, OR the fact that he thinks so much more complicated.

I wonder if there is any kind of learning disability that would look like his profile? How about low processing speed? I guess a WISC would show that. But he still has almost 1 year to go before he can take it.

Not sure if his processing is low or if it's just that he reflects on everything, while my older goes at the speed of light.

Thank you for your input and for sharing your experiences.

One of my sibs deliberately did not follow directions in K, to relieve mind-numbing boredom.

I've also seen some highly-conceptual children have odd gaps in rote memory tasks, like learning the names of things (colors, shapes) and people. Note that learning the name of a triangle around age 4 is entirely normal. That's not a conceptual task. Was he able to sort shapes, or place them in form puzzles, at an earlier age? (Which would indicate that he understood the shape of a triangle conceptually, and it's visual-spatial characteristics, even if he didn't know the arbitrary label we use for it.)

If you think it could be a focus issue, it might be ADHD. A lot of people think that if a kid with ADHD can focus on certain things, it's not ADHD, but that's not the case. DD could read well before kindergarten and was very focused with reading, or doing things like jigsaw puzzles, but other things, like drawing a picture or coloring--it didn't happen very often. Kids with ADHD are able to focus or hyperfocus on things that are interesting to them but have problems staying on task with simpler or more boring things (or things that they find too hard). She's also very "visual spatial".
If he's 5 he is probably too young to diagnose but it's something to watch in the next couple years. DD looked similar to her peers in K (and was therefore grade accelerated) but she looked unfocused in first and second grade compared to peers. There is a lot of change between kindergarten and first or second grade. "Normal" kids grow out of their focus issues, and ADHD kids do not.

In terms of the "triangle" example, I'm not really sure what to think of that, esp. if he could read. Both of my kids could name all the shapes at age 1.5 or 2. I think DS's first words were actually names of shapes, rather than "kitty" or "cookie"

Most of your description could easily be used to describe my DS. He did the WISC at 6.5 and had subtest scores all over the place ranging from 99.6%ile down to 2%ile. He was labeled gifted with a probable LD in processing speed. His working memory was also low by comparison.

He's now almost 9 and we're retesting next week to confirm the LD so he can qualify for AT (a laptop). In our case he struggles with writing. He wasn't an early reader and was considered behind until this year. Now things seem to have clicked and he's reading above grade. Math and science have always been his strengths. Most of his million daily questions were science related and we read a lot of non-fiction. DH and I are both engineers so he's exposed to more science than your average kid. He's currently accelerated a year in math which is NEVER done in our board. It isn't enough but it took 2 years of advocating to get anything and it is a slight improvement.

Anyway, not sure if any of that helps but figured I'd share since so much of your description seemed to match. I'm sure I'll be posting once we finish testing and get whatever new labels they think fit.

Aeh , yes, he was able to put shapes together with ease. Seeing the patterns and placing the triangle the right way long before actually being sure of its name. Also around 4 he stared doing " Q-Bits" which is highly visual. I also remember at age 3 when I woold ask him about shapes he responded "Stop bothering me with details." It seems sometimes things are just not important to him so he doesn't bother with it.

Blackcat , I am not sure I would call it a focus issue. I don't know what exactly is happening in school, but at home he pays attention but just seem to overthink, and complicate things. He will ask lots of questions before answering, trying to cover every possible detail, "But this is...", "That makes no sense...", "You mean this or this...". I try to tell him to just answer the question, but there is usually not just a simple answer for him. There are always a bunch of different angles.

Things at school seem to be similar, but she also showed me work samples where he had drawn in the box he was supposed to write and vice versa. Another sample was he was supposed to circle 4 groups of 5 shoes and then count the groups by 5. He counted each shoe by 5 and ended up with 100 the it was supposed to be 25.

Chay, I will be curious to hear what the testing reveals. I am thinking my DS's processing might be low once he tests. But again, he just reflects so much. When he is reading he has to stop at each page and look at the pictures first, sometimes pointing out details I never even thought of. He is also much into predicting things by looking at pictures. He has done this since he was 2. So obviously this looks like he is slow at processing. He just sits there with his eyes fixed on the page, soaking it all in. This is also a kid, who at age 2 cried and refused to wear a pair of camoflauge pajamas because " It looks like people who are crying." And at age 2 looking at a painting of a deer in our house asking slightly irritated " Why is that deer looking at me like that?"

It will be interesting to see what the testing tells us once we can do it. I am considering doing an achievement test for now. I am thinking they might be able to pick up some signs from that about possible issues. I just really wish I had more to go on heading into 1st grade.

There is a problem that my brain has and always has had: I daydream almost continuously, and often can not really be bothered by the real world. Or, more accurately it is difficult for me to check in with the real world even for a short time if the real world is boring. As an adult I deal with this problem better, but as a child people used to say I wasn't present. Of course at times I would check in with the real world and do things that others could not do... Ie I was great at taking tests, but horrible at doing assignments. Another consideration is that I considered this 'work' I was doing in my daydream as both exciting and important.


Another problem my brain has is the need to over error check. Let's come up with a simple Venn diagram logic problem to show what I mean. Say space A is entirely inside of space B and lets say that space C does not at any point overlap space B. One part of my brain sees one of the obvious conclusions that no part of space C and space A overlaps, however there is another part of my brain that objects to that conclusion and keeps requiring me to supply additional proof. What is more is this proof nagging voice is never completely satisfied with any proof provided.

So you can imagine how much time ends up being wasted trying to revisit the basic premise that 1+1 really does equal 2 and why. Now this deep exploration does provide insights that many do not ever reach because they simply took 1+1 = 2 at face value, but it does tend to slow down performance.

And, yes people have my whole life said I over think things.

He sounds just like my DS10 He used to draw all over his math sheets and rip the edges... whine, complain, kick the chair legs, etc etc. Then they'd get sent home and the torture continued, until I'd make a deal with him: "Do these questions for Madame and then I will give you something better." He'd comply then I'd give him questions at a higher grade level and he'd fly through them.

It Is 2Day - that sounds like "maladaptive day dreaming" and both my son and I are guilty of it too - so much so that the school requested we have him tested for absence seizures (EEG came back normal).

1111 - I wish I had suggestions but all I can say is that it does get easier (my son's KG year was hell) as they get older and are more capable and willing to pay attention to the connection between their behaviors and the outcomes. Just hang in there, keep advocating, and give him harder work at home (if the school won't) so that he doesn't lose interest completely.

"Simple tasks he turns into something completely different and does them incorrectly."

My big question is, is it an incorrect way? Or just his way?

Like other posters, your first comment that "he does not seem to understand directions very well" took me straight to auditory processing, which itself has significant overlap with ADHD-I symptoms. Both will leave a kid missing a lot of instructions. Auditory processing issues can also make it hard to develop good phoneme awareness, and therefore can also impede early phonetics/ reading. (We've just finished an auditory assessment BTW; happy to share details if of any possible relevance).

But other than the teacher's comment, virtually everything you mention does seem explainable as his likely HG+. Especially if you throw in a heavy dose of visual spatial. So I would wonder about your own experience: in every day life, do you also feel like he doesn't *understand* instructions? Or that he hears something different than what was actually said? Or that he isn't able to pay enough attention to the instructions? Or - the $20,000 question - that he actively chooses to go his own way, regardless of the instructions?

Your description rings a lot of bells with my extremely visual-spatial DS10. Very out-of-the-box. He thrives on teachers he calls "eccentric, like me", and has had a lot of trouble with the more linear, conventional thinkers. He will never take a straight line to do anything, and even when very young, would chose incredibly hard, convoluted routes to get from A to B (simple example - with a toddler counting book, he'd jump all over the place counting the 20 fish, and never systematically work his way across, down, or through clusters. He was never wrong, though.) He avoids doing things the way everyone else does, on principle: his art was never recognizable because "I made it interesting, so it doesn't look like everyone else's." I can still instantly find his work on the classroom wall, as his will be ten times more complex than anyone else's - and unusually unfinished ("complexity" was his favourite word for several years). His clothes and long hair set him out from the other kids, on purpose. Even as a toddler, he was noticeably impervious to peer pressure (even when you wished he would, just this once, try something just because all his friends were doing it.)

There were a lot of things we thought he couldn't do, simply because he wasn't interested in doing what everyone else did. Then he'd do it once, you'd realize he was perfectly capable - but you'd never see it again, and sometimes we'd think we just imagined it. A seriously divergent thinker can be rather bewildering to live with at times. A teacher-pleaser he ain't.

Worksheets and repetition make his anxiety levels go through the roof. He never finishes the simple tasks at school, so his grades are so-so, regardless of his knowledge of the material (he got his first-ever real differentiation in math this year - and his first-ever As). He too desperately needs that big picture, or the material just doesn't mean much or engage him. He thinks in visuals and concepts, and putting those into words for other people can be slow (and writing them down veeeerrrrrry slow.)

But given our school is generally a very bad fit for a divergent, math-y thinker, I couldn't begin to tease out how much of his school challenges are simply boredom/ bad fit vs. learning challenges. He does have slow processing speed. It's highly likely that he is ADHD-I like his sister (but much more so!). These surely contribute to his being slow/ off-task, but we don't see them much when he's doing something exciting, like programming (but then, LDs are notoriously inconsistent). And maybe there's also something going on in expressive language that's impeding his writing (we're still struggling to tease all this out), or maybe it's really just the visual-spatial thing a la Linda Silverman (she may be pretty skimpy on evidence, but she sure can describe the men in my house - and a recent STB suggests we were not wrong in suspecting that DS is a pretty extreme example of the VS species).

So this isn't too helpful, I know! First I tell you its all just giftedness, then I throw all these possible LDs into the mix. Your own intuition is probably the best starting guide. Do you feel like he's struggling with certain things? Do you sense that some stuff is actually too hard for him, or just harder than it seems like it ought to be? Or does it feel more like he's actively seeking out ways to make simple things harder, in order to liven up an otherwise tedious task, or simply to exert his own very sideways approach on it?

Thank you all so much for your insights!

When I think of it, it really seem as though he doesn't understand simple tasks because he is always expecting something more complicated. I will give him instructions and say this is all it is, he will follow up with " you mean I just..", "I just have to do..". Confirming over and over that what he is supposed to do is really just what I am explaining. It is like he is always suspecting there is more to it.

Even when I ask him to go get something it might sound something like this:

Me: Could you go in your room and get ........,it is on the dresser.
DS: You mean the dresser in my room?
Me: Yes, the dresser in your room.
DS: Right by my bed?
Me: Yes, dresser by your bed.
DS: It is on top of the dresser in my room?

Like he is having to confirm things over and over to make sure he got it right.
This is a bit different than how he complicates things overwhen we do schoolwork. Almost seems as though the auditory processing is not working right.

He is also very insistent upon things being done right. One sheet of homework was counting fruits. The answer was supposed to be five, but one of the fruits was a cherry, not just one cherry but two stuck together like they are. But it is was still supposed to be counted as one. He refused to say they were only five fruits. He got very upset and kept saying there are actually 6.

On a test in school there was a question where you had a group of five books and a group of two cats. The question was what is less than 5. You were supposed to circle the group of 2 cats. Instead he draws 4 things and puts 4 as his answer.

Overall it seems a lot of the time he does not see things for what they are. He always dissect the question and completely complicates it. Does he get it right when he does it the way he figured he was supposed to? Yes, absolutely. When he complicates the question and does it, the answer always makes sense. Of course it is not the answer that was expected though.

MichelleC , any details about the auditory processing results would be appreciated.

Chay, interested to hear about the test results!

A couple more weeks.... the suspense is killing me

This is what used to be called "a lack of common sense." I think of it as an information-sifting problem-- this is a person who takes in a lot of information and thinks of many possibilities but has trouble choosing the most relevant or reasonable possibility.

It is also a perspective-taking issue (inability to think about the most likely meaning in someone else's head).

It is a serious hindrance. You can work on it by prompting him on how to think the task through. It's not an easy skill to teach.

This kind of rigidity is also important to work on. I would try not to cater to it-- we cultivate situations where rigid thinking is challenged. It is useful with worksheets to prompt thinking about "remember the main idea of today's lesson" and then "what do you think they are asking you to do here?"

Left unaddressed, this can become a problem with taking tests down the road, as well as a serious annoyance to co-workers.

This combination of features is often seen in people with autism spectrum disorders.

DeeDee

This sounds a little bit like anxiety to me. I recognize some of what you are talking about in my DD, who has anxiety. Also, it does sound a little bit ASD-ish...the behavior is also not unlike my DD who is kind of gray area for ASD.

At the same time, my other child is really just NOT ASD BUT is HG. He will overthink things because he is bored/trying to make it more interesting. It can be hard to tease apart, but having the two children, I now kind of see one as one thing and the other as the other, if that makes sense. Yet they are similar!!

My DD did this occasionally when we gave her permission for something, and she'd ask us over and over again. "You mean I can have an ice cream?" "YES! I've told you three times you can have a stinkin' ice cream!"

We came to understand that it was associated with disbelief. She was sure that she shouldn't be allowed whatever she'd asked, we'd said she could, and it didn't make any sense. In some of those cases, it was because she didn't understand the rule, or she didn't understand why this particular case should be an exception, like, "It's a party. We're allowed to eat unhealthy at a party. Just don't over-stuff yourself." Most of the time, this behavior was a signal that she knew something we hadn't thought of, and we needed to reconsider... "Wait a minute. You had cookies earlier. That's enough junk food for one day. No ice cream."

Hmmmm... you definitely pose questions that need expert assessment and real-life experience. We're WAY out of my knowledge base here. But I might hesitantly posit that a conversation like you describe is what I imagine could happen with someone who doesn't trust some form of the input they experience, and wants to confirm it as many ways as possible? The Eides Mislabeled Child goes through a gazillion ways input and memory can glitch (it's a rather overwhelming book); it might be a helpful starting point to see what resonates?

With respect to our auditory processing assessment, we went for three reasons: (1) to see if auditory processing could be contributing to DD's reading issues, in addition to the dyslexia; (2) to confirm whether attention issues were in fact ADHD-I and/or ADP; and (3) because DD had a few specifically ADP symptoms (asking us to repeat things; hard time modulating voice levels; both of these noticeably worse in noisier environments; very noise sensitive; psych noticed she misheard "m" vs "n" a few times).

In our medium-sized city, there is, as far as we know, only one audiologist who can assess auditory processing as opposed to regular hearing issues (ditto for visual processing), so make sure you specialist can actually do the right kind of assessment (ours was recommended by our psych). The testing took about three hours, and was exhausting for DD. Our audiologist was fabulous at explaining and demonstrating all the different tests, and showing us exactly what they measured, and how they related to specific real-life experiences. We could easily see how she used the various tests to distinguish between ADP and ADHD, for example, and clearly showed DD's issues were with sustaining attention rather than with auditory. And while DD came up negative overall for ADP, there were two tests where she was at the bottom of the "normal" range and should be monitored: these were consistent with our experience, and good flags for her teachers. Specifically, her two challenge areas were focusing on a distant voice and tuning out a closer one (i.e. hearing a teacher when student closer to DD was also talking) and understanding a somewhat muffled voice (i.e. one that mimicked a teacher's voice bounced off a wall because they were at the blackboard with their back to the class).

Note that while we came out OK with respect to auditory processing, the audiologist did a quickie check and flagged visual processing issues instead.... eyes not tracking together at the same time, or converging on an approaching object. So that's a whole 'nother assessment and remediation merry-go-round we're into. Again, top-notch optometrist never noticed, we needed the one and only guy in town who specialized in visual processing, not vision.

Not sure if this hits on what you were looking for, but hope it helps!

Our older son had a convergence vision issue. It was corrected with 7 months of vision therapy. The tester did say that he might also have a mild auditory issue. We will have him tested at a place recommended by the psychologist. I might also see if we can test my younger son. Is there an age they have to be to do that though? I thought I read that somewhere. Thank you for the information MichelleC .

DeeDee, I agree it looks like he has no common sense when dealing with certain tasks. But then, a lot of the times he has incredible common sense. We always laugh when looking at both kids saying ourge younger is so much more street smart than ourge older. He has an incredible ability to pick up on the way people are acting and their feelings and respond accordingly, I am not kidding. It is like you are dealing with an adult. An adult who has this ability, that is.

Another interesting point is that when he is offered material that is at the right challenge level he does not question it the way he does with easier materials. He does not complicate at the way he goes with easy material. It took me one time showing him how to do addition multi digit carry over a few months back, he got it immediately. No questions asked. Also the other day when he wanted to find out what PI really meant, he just sat there, completely focused and listened. He did ask a couple of questions but completely legitimate ones. Come to think of it it really seems its must be that when the material is too easy he tries to complicate it. Maybe out of boredom, maybe just because he can't imagine something being that simple.

Dude, you are right. A lot of times I think he keeps asking those questions because he wants to make completely sure that we mean what we are telling him. He is a rule follower and probably wants to be 100% sure he is allowed to do something.

Ultramarina, he definitely has some anxiety going on at times. It has gotten better as he has gotten older. It used to be in a new situations, when things are unknown. He would over analyze everything that could happen in that situation. He still does this, but now he is better at thinking about past experiences and realizing it will be ok.

I am not familiar with ASD at all. How would we get this checked out? I guess it would have to be with an experienced psychologist who also specialize in gifted kids right? When we took him in for evaluation about 2 years ago, the psychologist did not think that there was anything out of the ordinary except him possibly being well into the gifted range. I guess it is possible if he only has mild ASD that it could have been missed?

If you feel it is important to rule in/out ASD, then yes, you would want an experienced psych who has worked with GT, ASD, and GT/ASD kids, so that the distinctions in presentation will be noticeable to him/her.

I would say that the likelihood of it being HG behaviors vs ASD behaviors is increased by your observation that the complicating-directions behavior is restricted to tasks that are mismatched in instructional level. And on repeated disbelief/clarification/confirmation of directions you've given him: I agree that this may be an attempt to fit a discordant piece of data into the data set he's previously established about the situation or the person giving the direction. In addition, it also sounds like there may be an element of a need for precision. It reminds me of childhood stories I heard about my PG sib, who did something similar when reporting observations. "Look at the car! Look at the red car. Look at the red convertible-top car. Look at the red convertible-top car. Look at the red convertible-top car under the billboard...etc." Of course, by the time you get to the end of this sequence, the car is 5 miles behind you... Kids who can see more angles, I think, are more likely to need specificity.

Aeh, I think you are on to something. It seems to me like since he is very visual he needs to create a clear picture of a task or situation in his mind before being satisfied. Yesterday I told him about a week long summer camp at his school this notsummer. He proceeded to ask 15 questions about it. Where in his school was it taking place? Was he eating lunch there? How many kids were going to be there? Who were the kids we're going to be there? Was I going to be at the school while he was at camp? Where would I pick him up from? And on and on. At the end of it all he decided it was not a good idea for him to do the camp. For whatever reason.

Somehow my intuition tells me that the disconnect in following directions in doing a simple task is due to disinterest. He told his grandfather when I asked the other day that school is way too easy and boring. He said he wants harder stuff to do. He sounded very frustrated and almost angry when saying this. I think next year he will probably be more verbal about his needs academically. At least that is when my older boy started really showing us his frustrations.

I am still not ruling out other issues. Especially auditory processing. I also suspect that when we do the WISC his processing speed might not be that high. Although, when he does a speed math program, which he loves, on the computer, he thinks extremely quickly. Not sure this would be considered processing though? Another question is, how does reflecting on things affect processing speed on the WISC ? It might just be that, not that's his actual processing is slow.

DS10 is a slow processor (in WISC and real life), but also super visual. I find that anything he can see as a picture in his head and doesn't have to turn into words, he can do frighteningly fast, including the kinds of math where he can "see" the problem/ solution. Other things, not so much.

So he maxed out the visual-spatial Block Design, even though that's the timed test that usually gets the slow processors. But he needs about an hour to produce a written sentence.... I suspect there are many, many complicating factors of memory and processing that affect both the testing and what we experience in everyday life.

A couple of interesting things that happened yesterday and that is puzzling to me. We were reading a book, he was reading to me. Even though he started reading before he was 3, and he has obviously improved a lot, it has seemed as though the fluency has been lacking. Like it is choppy. yesterday he was reading to me and after a little while he took his hand and put it over the picture on the page. I asked him why he did that and he said he kept looking at the picture and that it was distracting to him. After that he's reading fluency was incredible! Huge difference! I am wondering if a lot of the work in school has pictures next to it, and since he is so visual eyes are drawn to the picture and he gets distracted.

Another thing he shared with me is that when in school, he keeps listening to the air conditioning/heating system running. He says it sounds like he is at a racetrack and cars are driving, and that he makes a movie about it in his head.

Having added those two components, I am wondering if anybody has any experience with what this could be caused by? Is there some kind of disorder where the kid can react like this? Or is it just because of the overexcitabilitlies that come along with giftedness?

The illustration thing has an easy fix....give him a few index cards (small and larger). He can place them over pictures on worksheets and texts and use them as book marks.

The air conditioning thing is harder...if he was homeschooling I would say noise canceling white noise machine that the psychology department that tested my son was the coolest thing ever!!! But I don't see how that could work in a classroom. Noise canceling headphones like used on a flight deck? But then that is so isolating.

I did have a student when I was teaching high school ESE self contained class who complained about the fluorescent light buzzing (we all did, but it bothered him more). We put in a work order but you know they get to it when they get to it. One day as he walked down the hall with the offending buzzing light in a drop ceiling he reached up and smashed the light to pieces. From that day on, all our work orders rose to the top of the pile.

Warning, totally inexpert opinion here. But I would say yes, and yes. Likely explainable by over-excitabilitites, but if it is severe enough to get in the way of everyday learning or living, there are various possible disorders which may be relevant.

I've seen quite a few posts on this forum describing extreme noise sensitivities, and my DD has a few of her own. Those turbo hand dryers in public washrooms seem to be an especially common trigger, as do buzzing classroom lights. So for lots of people, I think noise is just one of those gifted sensitivities, like shirt tags, that we become better able to control as we become older and can choose our environments a little more. The fact that your DS is incorporating the noise into a movie in his head, rather than complaining it causes him pain or misery, would make me suspect a possible boredom issue, though...

For extreme sensitivities, I've read a lot of people describing a struggle to find the line between over-excitabilities and Sensory Processing Disorder; it seems more about how much impact it is having on the person's daily functioning, I think? Noise sensitivity can be also found with auditory processing disorders (APD), and background noise can make it really hard for someone with APD to understand what people are saying to them. In my DDs case, her noise sensitivity is probably exacerbated by (or perhaps causality runs the other way - or both?) with her ADHD-Inattentive: staying focused is hard, and any distraction unhelpful. And while while she came up OK for APD, she does have some marginal scores that make extra noise extra difficult, so the two issues feed each other.

Similarly - though here I am on even shakier ground - I can readily imagine how a very bright, busy brain could easily be distracted by visual overload, especially if the text content is not extremely demanding, so there is lots of brainpower left to wander on to everything else around.

In our case, DD was found to have visual processing issues, and we can (now!) see her eyes jumping around when she tries to move them in a straight line. She also can't hold hold her eyes still, i.e. stay focused on an object after she has looked towards it. Snippets of research also suggest dyslexics as a group may have more trouble keeping the eyes moving consistently and evenly across rows of text and then onto the start of the next row (they may jump around, miss and/ or repeat words and lines, etc.). We're totally new to the visual processing issue, but I would speculate that between the ADHD, dyslexia and visual issues, DD has huge difficulty keeping her eyes where they belong in a smooth, consistent flow through the text, and anything luring them away can't be helpful.

But from another perspective, this made me think of anxiety again.

I am noise sensitive but I am OK if I am in a good place mentally, emotionally and physically. Tiredness or stress seem to amplify everything. And it makes me so grumpy.

I was considering sensory processing disorder a couple of years ago. But the pediatrician was not concerned and didn't see it necessary to evaluate. She actually said to have him checked for giftedness since she suspected it had something to do with overexcitebiilities. This is the same pediatrician who when my older son was about a year old told me that he was probably profoundly gifted. She ended up being right.

I told my older son about the fact that his brother listens to the air conditioner in the classroom. He is in the exact same classroom my older was when he was in kindergarten. His response was; "yes I know all about that, I did it too, I'm sure it is because he's bored. That's what it was for me." Interesting information to say the least. :-)

Noise does bother him to a certain extent. So does bright lights. But he can handle it pretty well now. Sometimes, when he is already emotional or doing something important, the noise level seems to bother him more. I think it is overwhelming when there are a lot of different aspects hitting him all at once..