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“ADHD and Children Who Are Gifted” Article Critique The authors list out the 14 criteria for ADHD diagnoses. They point out that most of these are present in gifted and talented children, as well. Examples of easily confused criteria could be, “Has difficulty awaiting turns in games or group situations. ” and “Often blurts out answers to questions before they have been completed. ” The authors also point out that, many times, ADHD is diagnosed simply by teacher/parent descriptions of the child.
The authors then list out 6 behaviors associated with ADHD and 6 behaviors associated with gifted and talented, which they consider to be “parallel”. Next, the authors describe how ADHD and gifted and talented differ in certain settings and why the behavior appears in that setting. For example, hyperactivity is something that most people identify with ADHD. But, hyperactivity can also be present in a gifted and talented student, if they are not challenged enough with their work and get bored in class.
They point out that gifted and talented children may spend one-fourth to one-half of their regular class time waiting for others to be done. They also point out that ADHD children often have behavior problems in every area of their life (school, home, etc. ), but gifted children will only present those problems in certain situations (school). Also, ADHD children seem to be inconsistent in their quality of performance, which gifted and talented children do not seem to be. Lastly, the authors spell out what they think is a proper evaluation and diagnosis or either ADHD or gifted and talented.
Proper tests, evaluations, and rating scales can help differentiate between ADHD and gifted and talented. I feel that the authors have a very good point. Looking at the list of criteria for ADHD, I noticed many things that a bored gifted and talented child would show, as well. Being someone who was supposed to be in gifted and talented, I know all too well the restlessness and boredom of waiting for the rest of the class finish something that took you little to no time to finish. I, myself, was sent to the office numerous times for talking or being disruptive, but my work was always finished and that was the problem.
Even the list of criteria to help distinguish between the two can make someone confused about which is which. For example, “Diminished persistence on tasks not having immediate consequences. ” is a criteria for ADHD children, while “Low tolerance for persistence on tasks that seem irrelevant” is a criteria for gifted and talented children. They’re so closely related that it would be hard to distinguish between the two behaviors. I definitely agree with what the authors have to say about paying attention to the situations the child is in and the different behaviors that can cue you in the right direction.
Like I said, I used to finish my work in no time and have problems talking and disrupting class. I feel that if I had been ADHD, I would have had problems talking, whether I was done with my work or not verses only talking after my work is completed. The authors also state how many gifted and talented children challenge authority and rules, which I’ve also had problems with. This could easily be seen as a behavior problem, rather than intelligent thinking. What teacher would want to be criticized for a rule they made and turn around and think, “This child is just too intelligent. ? Lastly, I definitely agree with the authors about the proper way to diagnose a child, minimizing the risk or misdiagnosing them. There are many professionals and many tests and evaluations to really find out what’s going on in a child. I, personally, don’t like the fact that ADHD medication doses can be altered simply by the parent saying, “It’s not working yet. ” I definitely agree with the authors that there should be evaluation after evaluation to help figure out what the child needs.