This Free Essay Contains Contemplating about Gifted Children with ADHD

The determination of children's potential should be based on cumulative monitoring of performances both in academic and co-curricular activities as opposed to one-time analysis. This trend is critical in identifying special attributes that define the condition of a child. The identification of childrens trait must be based on neutral ideals to enhance identification of special shared attributes between ADHD and gifted childrens ordinary character. This aspect also promotes academic progress of gifted children. Misdiagnosis of gifted children with ADHD is a product of multiple aspects and may be quite dangerous to progressive excellence of the child both in academics and other areas of engagement.¶

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

With regard to the identity subject, gifted children often do well in schools and other areas of testing. However, some are associated with behaviors that resemble Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The misdiagnosis of this problem is also a major challenge in spearheading the right attention to such children. For instance, gifted children may appear very hyperactive since they often ask multiple questions and remain excited during the entire learning process. Besides, such children may also fail to partake in age-related activities due to their over-focus on areas of special interest. Boredom can also result into inattention and feelings of depression as a result. In such instances, children do not have ADHD or other disability and the best attention could be to provide them the stimulation they need. In many cases however, this situation is misdiagnosed for ADHD (Jolly-Ryan, 2010). If not well checked, the child may fail in the academic or other social segment despite their prevailing high potential.

Despite the fact that uncommon behaviors among gifted children does not always imply any disability, some gifted children may have ADHD or other behavioral conditions even at times when they are provided with the best stimulation attention. Dual diagnosis may be hard for the guardian, clinicians or the teachers to accept. Adults working with children often attempt to get one explanation for the children behaviors and may also not accept the fact that gifted children can have a disability (Olenchak, 2009). The identification of giftedness and simultaneous disability like the ADHD is however not hard to work out provided the pediatricians consider probability of presence of both disability and giftedness. However, most practitioners are biased in the view of gifted children must not have disorders. Subsequently, any child with ADHD, the procedure of conducting diagnosis must be undertaken based on the Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, (DSM-IV) (Jolly-Ryan, 2010). Besides, the Pediatrician should also consider if the listed symptoms on the DSM-IV are products of giftedness, whether they are products of executive dysfunction causing ADHD or combined.

Explanation

The gifted children with learning disabilities also possess amazing gifts but have a weakness which is associated with their disability. There has been however different debates surrounding the concept of twice exceptional issue that is often associated with gifted children with disability. From one perspective, the misdiagnosis is a product of overrated aspect that provides skewed perception that gifted children cannot have disability. However, another perspective provides that all people have both disabilities and gifts. On the contrary, other researchers associated twice exceptional is only associated with the hand-social individuals, gifted or behavioral disabilities such as ADHD or Emotional Behavioral Disorder (Gajitos, 2010).

Despite the fact that gifted children with ADHD may be considered twice exceptional, it may not be generalisable to those gifted in exceptional literature particularly for individuals with specific disabilities. There are differences between inattentive as well as hyperactive subtypes. The main traits of ADHD are: inattention, impulsivity or a combination of both. These features may be manifested in gifted children that may complicate the process of diagnosing the children. Gifted children often possess that are linked with ADHD (Piechowski, 2009). Such individuals have particular learning traits that provide them with the capacity to achieve outstanding performance. Nevertheless, the identification of learning traits of the gifted children is not direct since there are multiple beliefs concerning the traits exhibited by gifted children. Such divergent beliefs occur due to many aspects including the fact that gifted individuals have different features (Webb & Amend, et al. 2007). These attributes contributes to the misdiagnosis as posited in the contemporary trends pertaining to gifted children with other special traits.

Opinion

Finally, in my opinion, gifted children possess special traits that are not only distinguished but also conspicuous from both the perspectives of their colleagues but also their teachers. Subsequently, clinicians must consider all the specific traits free from biasness in order to enhance the results attributable to diagnosis against ADHD, all traits attributable to ADHD as pointed out earlier must be considered alongside general traits of a gifted child. Within class settings, teachers must seek to identify special traits of gifted children including over-expressed enthusiasm by a child or otherwise elongated passiveness. This implies that any form of overrated expression in a class or field activity by children should be checked to provide an opportunity to determine the potential of a child.

The determination of childrens potential should however be based on cumulative monitoring of performances both in academic and co-curricular activities as opposed to one time analysis. This trend is critical in identifying special attributes that may define the condition of a child. In essence, the identification of childrens trait should be based on neutral ideals in order enhance identification of special shared attributes between ADHD and gifted children. This aspect also promotes academic progress of gifted children. The misdiagnosis of gifted children with ADHD may be quite dangerous to progressive excellence of the child both in academics and other areas of engagement. Any diagnosis must therefore pursue the provision under Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, (DSM-IV) in order to minimize instances of biasness.

References

Gajitos, M. A. (2010). Is Coeducation An Untouchable Dogma? Breaking Grounds in the Introduction of Single-Sex Education in Gender-Neutral Finland.

Jolly-Ryan, J. (2010). Last Taboo: Breaking Law Students with Mental Illnesses and Disabilitiesout of the Stigma Straitjacket, The. UMKC L. Rev., 79, 123.

Olenchak, F. R. (2009). Effects of talents unlimited counseling on gifted/learning disabledstudents. Gifted Education International, 25(2), 144-164.

Piechowski, M. M. (2009). Living with intensity: Understanding the sensitivity, excitability, andemotional development of gifted children, adolescents, and adults. Great Potential Press,Inc.

Webb, J. T., Gore, J. L., & Amend, E. R. (2007). A parent's guide to gifted children. GreatPotential Press, Inc..