Do most gifted children have ADHD? (2023)

Do gifted kids often have ADHD?

Because of the similarities outlined above, 2e children who are both gifted and have ADHD can be especially difficult to detect. While many experts agree that these children do exist, there is currently no formal criteria to identify giftedness in children who are ADHD or to identify ADHD in children who are gifted.

Studies have shown that 50% of kids who are gifted have ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Many gifted children are being mis-diagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The gifted child's characteristics of intensity, sensitivity, impatience, and high motor activity can easily be mistaken for ADHD.

Gifted children like to organize things into complex structures. They tend to be perfectionists and idealists. They can get upset when others do not go agree with them. This may be thought to be obsessive-compulsive disorder or obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

ADHD can pose many challenges in everyday activities. But, many people take comfort in the misconception that children with ADHD are smarter than those without the disorder. However, intelligence and ADHD don't go hand in hand. Some people with ADHD might have higher IQs.

ADHD should not be rejected as a possibility because your child is currently doing well academically. Even when academic performance is high, the hidden cost of ADD (ADHD) is often taking a toll. Gifted students with ADD (ADHD) often struggle with anxiety, even when grades are high.

Results indicated children and adults with a high intelligence quotient (IQ) had low levels of ADHD symptoms and a low chance of having the cognitive problems that are often found in individuals with ADHD [18].

Children with exceptionally high IQ scores can also have ADHD. Both of my sons qualified for the Gifted/Talented program in school based on their high intelligence test scores. Both were also given the diagnosis of ADHD.

"I have a disorder." The way to resolve the confusion is to recognize that ADHD is truly a gift that can be used in so many positive ways by children, teachers, and parents. The intervention by professionals is to help people see it and treat it as a "gift."

Gifted children often are asked “If you're so good at doing that, why can't you do this?” Gifted children with ADHD often show heightened intensity and sensitivity, but they are set up to fail in a system that only recognizes and expects intellectual proclivity without consideration of their emotional needs.

Can gifted children have behavior problems?

With these unique characteristics, gifted children may have adverse reactions to intense stimuli, which can look like problematic behavior on the surface. For example, a child might withdraw from socializing at lunch if the smell of the cafeteria overwhelms them, which may lead some to think they are unsociable.

Gifted children may be under-stimulated or bored in typical social or education settings, [which] may result in behavior challenges like school refusal, tantrums, distractibility, or general acting out.

The fixed average is 100 and the normal range is between 85 and 115. This is a standard currently used and is used in the Stanford-Binet test as well.

Some say that gifted children are more prone to depression and suicide because of their heightened sensitivities, perfectionism, introversion, overachieving behaviors, existential concerns, and feeling like they don't fit in.

Some of the most common problem areas for gifted children include the following: Sensitivities and Overexcitabilities. Social Skills. Perfectionism.

Each other used a cut-off of 80 or above or did not take IQ into account. For instance, among the 18 studies under scrutiny that did not explicitly state an IQ cut-off point the mean range of IQ among individuals with ADHD reported in the studies is from 102 to 110.

ADHD can affect a student's ability to focus, pay attention, listen, or put effort into schoolwork. ADHD also can make a student fidgety, restless, talk too much, or disrupt the class. Kids with ADHD might also have learning disabilities that cause them to have problems in school.

Hands-On Learning

Children with ADHD do much better using a hands-on approach to learning, Collins says. To ask a child with ADHD to sit and listen for hours will probably not work. So instead, look for a school in which kids are actively engaged in learning by experience.

Professor Marco Catani suggests the best explanation for Leonardo da Vinci's inability to finish his works is that the great artist may have had Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

What foods can make ADHD worse?

Some of the common foods that can cause ADHD reactions include milk, chocolate, soy, wheat, eggs, beans, corn, tomatoes, grapes, and oranges. If you suspect a food sensitivity may be contributing to your child's ADHD symptoms, talk to your ADHD dietitian or doctor about trying an elimination diet.

ADHD can be an advantage, but only in small specific settings. In the general world it's a curse, but if you find that little spot in life where you just click with the place and the people and the work, it isn't quite a blessing, but it can be an advantage.

These may include hyperfocus, resilience, creativity, conversational skills, spontaneity, and abundant energy. Many people view these benefits as “superpowers” because those with ADHD can hone them to their advantage. People with ADHD have a unique perspective that others may find interesting and valuable.

They excel in unstructured situations and conversations. They tend to be more intuitive. They tend to be much more creative. They take risks.

Common Characteristics of Gifted Children:

Ability to comprehend material several grade levels above their age peers. Surprising emotional depth and sensitivity at a young age. Strong sense of curiosity. Enthusiastic about unique interests and topics.

ADHD symptoms start before age 12, and in some children, they're noticeable as early as 3 years of age. ADHD symptoms can be mild, moderate or severe, and they may continue into adulthood. ADHD occurs more often in males than in females, and behaviors can be different in boys and girls.

We suggest that, from an evolutionary point of view, ADHD symptoms might be understood to result from an 'evolutionary mismatch', in which current environmental demands do not fit with what evolution has prepared us to cope with.

Gifted children, characterized often by heightened emotional sensitivity, are often highly empathetic, as well. In fact, their empathy may seem overly present in their experience of the world, as any parent whose child has burst into tears about a dead bug on the sidewalk can tell you.

Gifted children often struggle with social emotional skills. Social skills can be learned at any age. Parents need to stay in tune with their specific child's needs and help shape a strong framework for social-emotional health.

Because of their intellectual complexity, a gifted child can imagine a vast range of life scenarios that are unthinkable to the average child. They can and do feel with great intensity the emotions that are attached to each scenario and this can lead to them being overwhelmed by anxiety and fear.

Are gifted children socially awkward?

Gifted children often struggle socially and emotionally. Social interactions are difficult and they don't always know how to behave or read cues from others.

Negative Characteristics of a Gifted Child

Neglects some of their responsibilities: They may become overly focused on their current desires and ignore their seemingly simple responsibilities. Bullyrags or plays cruel jokes: They can quickly say anything that seems witty to them and make offensive jokes about people.

The Gifted Child's Struggle

Giftedness can create problems and conflicts; being a gifted child can also mean difficulty socializing with age peers, thinking styles that don't always mesh well with the demands from the environment, even children who see themselves as little adults, challenging teachers and parents.

Gifted children often set very high standards for themselves and get frustrated when they can't meet them. This can sometimes result in tantrums and other difficult behaviour. It's great for your child to work towards high standards. But your child needs to understand that they can't have high standards for everything.

Giftedness tends to run in families, so many of the traits that indicate giftedness are common among extended family members. Parents may see a sign of giftedness and consider it perfectly normal, average behavior if several family members have the same trait.

So when gifted children become gifted adults, they fear failure and are less likely to take risks. They may also maintain that sense of perfectionism, and as such, are never happy-- because who can be perfect, much less all the time?

However, people who study and counsel gifted students say this is a potentially harmful misperception. These experts caution that while gifted children are not necessarily more at risk for low self-esteem than other children, their self-esteem issues are more likely to be overlooked.

Making friends is often fraught for gifted children. They may find it difficult to find friends in a typical school environment or extracurricular activity. The more gifted they are, the more difficult it may be for them to find social connection with other children their age, and understandably so.

Do gifted kids do well in school?

While gifted children are able to learn easily and with greater ardor, they often do not excel if they lack a challenging and stimulating environment. If a gifted child loses the motivation to learn, “he or she may not do well in school, although achievement test scores will usually remain high.”

Sensitivities and Overexcitabilities

Because of these unique characteristics, gifted children may have adverse reactions to intense stimuli, which can look like problem behavior on the surface. For example, a perceptive child may see something on the news that frightens them and refuse to sleep alone at night.

High IQ may “mask” the diagnosis of ADHD by compensating for deficits in executive functions in treatment-naïve adults with ADHD.

The truth is, there's no correlation between ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and intelligence or IQ level — meaning the condition doesn't make someone any more or any less intelligent than someone without.

Giftedness can create problems and conflicts; being a gifted child can also mean difficulty socializing with age peers, thinking styles that don't always mesh well with the demands from the environment, even children who see themselves as little adults, challenging teachers and parents.