GATE And ADD

Hi L.,
We have struggled with this same issue for many years with our 3 gifted and "attention different" children. My youngest, age 15, has been in GATE since 2nd grade is now taking all honors/IB/AP classes in high school. She is absolutely swamped with homework and is now extremely sleep deprived. She learns very quickly but executes tasks with painfully slow precision. All my kids have been bored to tears with repetitive assignments that require a lot of writing out, such as taking notes on the chapter or just plain busy work. Also , gifted kids tend to want to take the subject manner to a greater depth which leads to interesting although distracting conversations. Such has been the pattern in our household anyway. Unfortunately, schools seem to assume that bright children are capable of producing greater quantities of work and giving up all their free time to homework even though they still have the same needs for an outside life as anyone. It is a dilemma we have faced as well, so I understand your frustration. Your son may have a type of attention problem which is more linked to his intelligence and creativity rather than an actual deficit. He is functioning well but basically has no life. I do not have a great solution for you, but I will share with you the things that have helped us get through these years. First, exercise is mandatory for these kids, anything that they really enjoy. It will help wake up their brains. This seems obvious, but let your son talk about what he is learning with you; sometimes your interest will help him focus or prepare his mind to work on the assignment. Continue to praise him when he finishes quickly, break down assignments, and give rewards. I would not suggest punishment; he is probably trying his hardest. I would suggest having him evaluated for ADD because, even if you do not want to use medication, the teacher/school may be willing to tailor his assignments to his needs or scale back the workload so he is not so overwhelmed. (Our experience is that if 10 math problems is enough for them to learn the concept, then 20 will be counterproductive.) If he is diagnosed perhaps short-term medication would help him organize better and "learn" to use his time more efficiently. I would ask your pediatrician for a referral. By the way, college is much more suitable for gifted students-less busy work and more interesting!
Best of luck to you and your son!
Janet

The Drake Institue in Newport Beach. THey are excellent and can help diagnose and they dont push drugs on you or your child.
I strongly suggest going to them.

Hi
I dont have any personal experience with this, but I found some local places that might be helpful:
www.psychEnrich.com
www.testingforchildren.com
www.successunlimitedcenter.com
Good luck

Hi L., Sounds frustrating!! When I read your post I thought "Wow that sounds like my friend's daughter" She had similar issues for YEARS until she was finally diagnosed with something called Sensory Processing Disorder. (also called Sensory Integration) her daughter had trouble with focusing, sitting still to do work, noises distract her, etc and she is also in their equivalent of "GATE" and very smart, almost to a fault (doesn't seem to join in with other children, etc) She always just had some quirky behaviors and it turns out that that is one of the signs of SPD, kids that don't seem to be "disabled" in any way, they just don't seem quite like everyone else. I have NO IDEA if this is what your son has going on but like I said it sounded so much like my friend that I just had to give you this info. I called my firend and she gave me this website for you to go to, it shows the "red flag" signs. She said it is often misdaignosed as ADD because people are not always aware of it and some of the issues are similar. Here's the link: http://www.spdfoundation.net/redflags.html
If after reading that page you feel you want to see someone about this she gave me a name of a therapist that specializes in Sensory disorders. This is not who she uses as she is in a different area, but she has heard good things about this therapist in our area. It is called Beach Kids Therapy Center in San Clemente. Her name is Betsy. www.beachkidstherapy.com I hope this helps you in some way, good luck with your son. I hope you get some answers.