Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Denial or disbelief?!

There is nothing that says that even highly gifted people can't have problems with attention, working memory, and/or executive functioning. It's 2E stuff like this that leads to others saying things like "If you're so smart, why can't you ______________________?" We've found the books "Smart, but Scattered" and "Late, Lost, and Unprepared", combined with some of the principles of the Nurtured Heart approach, to be very helpful in helping our son develop skills in these areas.

My 2e ds had a really tough time with those "simple task" times of day like getting ready for school and getting ready for bed up until middle school, now it's suddenly clicked. I used to think it was all related to his 2e-ness... but now I'm thinking part of it was just a maturity/developmental issue. He also used to lose everything, particularly homework at school and shoes at home. That, too, improved with maturity.

Sadly, his bedroom floor is still a disaster unfit for parents to walk through... and I see no signs of that ever improving!

polarbear

I just ordered those two books. It will probably benefit the whole family.

One thing I did not mention is DD's 3rd grade teacher, in the first month of the gifted 3rd grade class, expressed genuine concern about having to call DD's name because she was not paying attention, sometimes several times a week, almost to the point where DD was "locked up" or lost in her own world. This problem eventually went away and we think it was more that awkward shock of being in a class for the first time that required paying attention and working hard, skills she never had to use much in previous years.

We had the same issues with Mr W and his recent acceleration. Its a real school with real expectations.

Here's another one I really like -
Amazon.com: Transforming the Difficult Child Workbook: An ...www.amazon.com › Books › Parenting & Relationships › ParentingCached - Similar

(although I'm not as 'anti-medication for kids with ADD,ADHD as they are - I did used to be!)

She has pretty much always walked around with 'blinkers' on - she doesn't see or hear things going on around her at all sometimes, because she's so engrossed in whatever she's thinking about. We've found checklists helpful for daily tasks, and her teachers have been helping with making sure she keeps track of her books etc. We also set up a system with them to make sure she's bringing her homework home. It takes an awful lot of work on our part to keep her running!

I always thought she'd just grow out of it, but I'd say it's actually gotten worse recently rather than better. My other child is a 21 month old who was born with a spinal condition. I feel like I have to spend as much time doing everything for her as I do for him, and he's just a toddler. I'm happy to do it if it keeps her on track, but I can't be there forever - eventually she needs to learn to take care of herself.

Oh and I just heard our insurance company has denied our request to get the counseling the psychologist recommended for her. Awesome.

It is a lot of work, and during the years when hormones are doing their thing it looks like no progress at all is being made - it's tiny increments under the best of times, but, for us at least, DS15 has made amazing leaps in this area. Like many kids, his organizational skills were at one level, and his intellectual needs were at another level - so - heavy supervision. This was true but not noticible during elementary school (as long as he was allowed to read during classroom discussion) and most noticible following a grade skip into middle school. Luckily, time, finding a good fit school where he can flourish even with agemates, and medication for his ADHD-innatentive have helped his innate drive get it all together. By age 14 in 9th grade sub 2, he was living at a boarding school and engaged with his academic challenge with zero parental organizational support.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Just a thought, but has she ever been evaluated for absence seizures? While it is certainly possible to be so engrossed that you don't see or hear what is going on around you, (I frequently can't hear when people first speak to me when I'm reading because my auditory system is otherwise engaged), I have seen a number of children who had actually had absence seizures but who presented as otherwise normal children who were inattentive and disorganized and often "in their own world" - and it is certainly possible to have both things going on at different times. A positive history of neural tube problems in close family members doesn't do anything to convince me that that this shouldn't be looked into further. Diagnostic testing (but not treatment) can be covered by the school as part of the evaluation for potential disabilities if the inattentiveness and disorganization are interfering with her educational functioning - which they are, if you are having to give her increased support with homework, remembering assignments, etc.

try asking the psychologist to contact the Insurance Company - it may help.