Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional ADHD, Visual spatial, sensory issues, what???

Awalk, my 7yo son sounds exactly the same too. He's very bright and has accelerated math classes where he focuses because it is highly student-teacher interactive. But for unaccelerated work especially related to writing, he balks and drags his feet.

For the longest time, I thought he had ADHD. His psychologist didn't think so because of his giftedness, but I could see the daily lack of focus, the staring and smiling into space when he was supposed to be doing homework, and I was getting a lot of complaints from school. Getting him to complete simple tasks is difficult because he seems not to hear, so you can imagine how it is in an environment like school.

What he does have is a significant vision issue with very poor visual discrimination. He also has sensory issues and has poor gross motor skills. His OT said his vision profile is that of a dyslexic, but he isn't (he's reading the Murderous Math series now). He does however, have the other symptoms of a dyslexic (no sense of time, poor auditory processing). And because of his vision, writing is tough too. We're working to get this corrected, and in the meanwhile, I'm planning to homeschool him within a very tactile environment.

Awalk, I completely agree with the other posters to investigate further. Good luck on your search!

We seem fairly evenly split, don't we?! You're going to have to follow your intuition... But my 2pworth is that he sounds in need of more challenge rather than of a diagnosis - I'd wonder whether the gifted class is almost as underchallenging as the normal classroom for him (might be worth a fuller investigation of his level of giftedness). You said that it can't all be boring and that e.g. he doesn't write much even for interesting writing tasks. My DS's teacher last year had what seemed to me a useful insight when he was behaving similarly - she said that he wants to write things that are like what he reads in books, isn't prepared to be satisfied with something that seems less convincing that that, and gets frustrated. Maybe it's similar for your DS?

I called and spoke with a Developmental pediatrician today and we are in the process of making an appointment. He will look at everything - auditory, visual, intelligence- to help us determine the cause of the behavior. I had the eyeopening experience of watching him do some math worksheets this weekend. I had to sit by him to get him to complete them. He told me he does not even read the whole problem -- just skims for the key words (less,more) and the numbers (explains why he never draws the picture - I suppose you could call it impulsive). It was all the work he has not turned in for the past few weeks, so it was half done and about 8 pages in all. He did them in about 20 minutes, but only because I sat next to him and kept him on task. When I left the room, he was up doing some other activity. It made me realize that if he was not so bright and able to do these problems with such little mental effort, it would have been near impossible.

Most of our homework is wrting down the name of a book you read and a short sentence about it(not much of a problem since he loves to read and choses his own books and comes up with the shortest concise sentence.) This was a completely different experience. I am looking forward to meeting with the doctor. Thanks to everyone for sharing thier thoughts and experiences.

Awalk, I hope you get good information that leads to an excellent plan for your DS. Keep us posted.

DeeDee

I will tell when our report back. It could take 2-3 more weeks.

My son's sometimes has good performance and sometimes don't. Today he had tons of homework because last week he was absent for the test. All of the homework sheets are math and grammar. It took him time to finish but he could keep on working. As long as the homework has writing involved, I need to stay next to him and rush him every few minutes. Sometime it still took hours to finish few questions. He has trouble to express his idea on paper since kindergarten. I am not sure he has ADHD by now but he did fit lots of traits.

Recently I have tried this at home. Gave my son a reasonable time (like 10-20 mins) to finish a portion of homework. I put a timer in front of him so he could see how much time he had. Before time's up or finishing the portion, he could not leave his seat or daydreaming. After that he could have a short break and then came back to work on next portion. The strategy didn't work perfectly but it did help him to focus more.

I hope that you keep in mind that a child can be gifted and have ADHD. And, working with a team evaluators will help you gather objective data necessary for understanding what is going on and what is interfering with his performance. It could be ADHD, it could be lack of sleep, Lyme decease, and learning disability, boredom or any combination of these and more. It is probably best to go into the evaluation process without preconceived notions and to stick to the "referral question" "What is interfering with his ability to stay on focused on academic tasks, daily routines etc".

The key to answering this question will be the gathering of information you need to understand your child's cognitive, medical and learning profile to rule in or rule out causes. This will allow you to formulate an effectuve plan to help your child. By working with a team of experts you can get to the bottom of this much more quickly.

Best of luck.