GIFTED & ADD
                                 by
                            Joseph Weber        
        
        Excerpted from: "The Symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder
        Can Be Controlled"
        
             Gifted children with Attention Deficit Disorder (those with
        I.Q.'s of one hundred thirty or above) are usually not
        identified, incorrectly identified, or identified at later
        than usual ages for five reasons.  The first reason is that
        gifted children with Attention Deficit Disorder remain
        academically productive until shifts of higher expectations,
        usually at the fourth, sixth, or ninth grade levels.  The
        second reason is that they are less likely to have
        behavioral problems at school, so less notes and phone calls
        home.  The third reason is that they are less likely to have
        social acceptance problems because of a more tolerant peer
        group and excellent interpersonal judgment and awareness. 
        The fourth reason gifted children with Attention Deficit
        Disorder are not identified correctly, at usual age or at
        all because their parents deal with problems better which
        puts off diagnosis.  The fifth reason is that they don't
        give the appearance of inattentiveness or distractability,
        especially in the evaluation setting where eighty percent of
        all children with Attention Deficit Disorder give no
        symptoms.   
        
             Most of the gifted children with Attention Deficit Disorder
        come from a household with educated and education-valuing
        parents with a sufficient income.  The children also lack
        habitual anti-social behavior or violence found in
        approximately half of the children with Attention Deficit
        Disorder that show temper outbursts, argumentativeness, and
        defiance.  Gifted children with Attention Deficit Disorder
        usually have high expectations, but mask them with an "I
        don't care" attitude.  The difference between gifted and
        normal children with Attention Deficit Disorder is that the
        gifted children learn as shown by high test scores.  They
        catch bits and pieces of information and fit it together,
        while normal ADD children, who do not have the ability to
        piece together information, flunk tests.  In any classroom
        environment, even if challenging,  the gifted child with
        Attention Deficit Disorder will do poorly while
        insufficiently challenged peers will do well.
        
             A typewriter can help the gifted children with Attention
        Deficit Disorder to get down ideas which may be remarkably
        cognitive and mature, because it is hard for them to write
        their ideas down on paper.