Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Treatments for ADD?

DS12 (2e - Asperger's) is having a terrible time with school, and I am taking him to the doctor soon. He has close to zero executive functioning (organization, time management, prioritizing, focusing), cannot keep his mind on what he's supposed to be doing for two seconds, and is getting depressed about how far behind he is getting with school work and the way he can't seem to do what he needs to be doing.

I really think he has ADD -- not ADHD, as he's not hyper in the least -- does this fit with anyone's experiences in the matter?

Of course, if he's playing Minecraft or his other games, he can sit there all day, so I don't know if it qualifies. But I can ask him to look something up, and by the time I get across the kitchen he's gotten sidetracked and forgotten about it. And even when he's not getting lost playing a game instead of working, he can just be sitting there staring at the computer, having forgotten what he was going to work on. And I understand all of this perfectly, because I'm exactly the same way, which doesn't help.

If it is ADD, what treatments does anyone here recommend? What have you used?

I have the same issue with my son although he can play mine craft or do science projects and karate no problem he's suffering at school too so I have a doctor appointment set up for him on Thursday to discuss this.

I'm not telling you to medicate, since that's a personal choice that doesn't work for everyone, but in our case it has helped tremendously. There is a very obvious difference in terms of focus, and everyone can see immediately if DD is not medicated. We could try all the therapies in the world and they would only make a small difference in comparison (IMO)

Hyper focusing on areas of interests is a symptom of ADHD. Have you ever had him evaluated for ADHD?

DD (who has ADHD) isn't unfocused with everything either, she could also sit and play Minecraft all day as well. She is also usually very focused with reading, for whatever reason, even if she is not medicated. The main question is if you see the lack of focus in various different settings. If it is only at school, (for example) then something else may be going on like a learning disability or another disorder.

My nieces have ADHD and my SIL used to say that they were capable of hyperfocusing on things that were interesting to them, but otherwise were very distractable. Medication worked well for them--the older one at about age 8 was shocked by how much it improved her quality of life. However, they did have issues with the medication's efficacy during puberty and also had some issues with side effects (lack of hunger, etc.).

On a separate note, during the evaluation last year for my 2E son with Asperger's, the evaluator could not decide if his ADHD-like characteristics were just part of the Aspereger's or not. She said that she couldn't tell if he was distracted because he was focusing on his special interests or was just distracted. For example, I can tell when he's not listening to me, but sometimes he will say something that shows he was thinking very deeply about something totally unrelated to homework or chores or whatever.

So what is the difference between ADD and ADHD, then? I thought the H (being "hyperactivity") was the one where they bounce off the walls. Which would be my daughter, rather than my son. Her teachers have been commenting this year that she seems to be upside down a lot, and she falls out of her chair regularly. She's always rocking and bouncing and rolling around upside down when I'm trying to get her to do her homework, and apparently it happens a lot at school, too. But my son isn't like that at all. He's more of a lump.

There are different types of ADHD. The inattentive type, where the kid just isn't focused and acts like a space cadet, the combined type, where they aren't focused and also hyper, and the impulsive type where the main problem is the impulsivity or hyperactivity. So a kid with inattentive type ADHD will look completely different than one with hyperactive/impulsive type, but they are all still called ADHD. ADD used to be the inattentive type but now it's categorized as ADHD--inattentive type. Wikipedia has a good ADHD page.

So what's the difference between true add and a gifted child with excitabilities?