When he was five, my oldest son was tested for attention span issues and found to not have ADHD but they failed to identify his attention span issues as Bored Gifted Kid Syndrome (TM). It was only later, after getting involved with The TAG Project, that I concluded that was his real issue.
That was an unusually good school system and even they couldn't figure out my child who was an enigma wrapped in a mystery concealed in shadows for so many years. About three years later at some new school in a different state, some teacher told us to "put him on ritalin" because she was so frustrated with dealing with him.
This so enraged my very quiet husband that he actually raised his voice at that meeting and told them where to stick it. This teacher was completely out of line and was NOT even suggesting we get our child assessed for attention span issues. No, they were skipping straight to "Please drug your child for MY convenience."
The child had already been assessed and ADHD had been ruled out as an explanation for his behavioral problems. This is significant because ADHD is supposed to be a diagnosis of last resort given after all other possible explanations have been ruled out.
When I was involved with The TAG Project, some people referred to issues like OCD, ASD and ADHD as "comorbidities" of high IQ because people with very high IQs so frequently have such issues. In practical terms, this means people with very high IQs are more likely to be Twice Exceptional -- gifted and also handicapped in some fashion.
When he was eight years old, I scribbled a note that said something like:
Also when he was eight years old, he and I and his younger brother went shopping. It was his brother's birthday and his brother had gotten birthday money from various people and we were on a mission to let him buy video games for himself with his money.
My older son tried to dictate to his younger brother what to spend the birthday money on and at some point said something like "I'm not being mean/unreasonable. I'm willing to LET him spend SOME of it on himself."
This is one of those shake my head, roll my eyes moments from his childhood where it was clear to me there was no point in trying to punish him or even explain just then. Something was seriously messed up in his thought processes to a degree where "explaining" wasn't going to do any good.
So I turned to my younger son and told HIM "It's YOUR money. YOU get to decide how to spend it, not him."
So my younger child picked out something he liked and then couldn't find anything else he liked and still had money to spend. At that point, he decided to buy the game his brother was asking for in addition to what he was buying for himself.
I again rolled my eyes but stood by my statement that "It's YOUR money. It's YOUR decision." and I let him do that. Unbeknownst to me, he then used this as leverage over his brother and would have me lock the game up any time his brother was aggravating him too much because it was, in fact, HIS game, not his brother's.
I'm not sure exactly when I started my older son on the aforementioned supplements, but after about a year of being on them, at the age of nine my oldest said to me out of the blue "I finally understand why it was wrong to say I will LET him spend some of his money on himself."
This was pretty mind blowing stuff, sufficient that his Mouth From The South mother who NEVER shuts up just looked at him funny and said nothing while that sank in for me. He had also seen improvements in his terrible handwriting over the course of the previous months, which his dad tried to tell me was unrelated to the supplements and must be "because he plays video games all the time."
Yeah, sure. And I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona I would like to sell you too.
My oldest was eventually diagnosed with Atypical Cystic Fibrosis, which helps explain his tendency to be deficient in some things. Unsurprisingly, he still sometimes gets deficient and when he is short on B vitamins he gets difficult to deal with socially.
At such times, like when he was eight years old, I don't bother to argue with him. My standard reply to that these days is "I'm not discussing this further with you until we get some steak into you." as that is a good source of B vitamins that he tolerates well and is happy to eat and it generally fixes him right up.
My personal opinion is that most likely people with high IQs are probably generally in need of better nutrition for their brains -- especially B vitamins, which are water soluble, so very easy to become deficient in -- and this would resolve or mitigate the high levels of ADHD, ASD, OCD et al seen in this population.
Everything I have read indicates that the right nutritional support generally does a better job than prescription drugs of mitigating such issues in children and does not come with the downside of potential long term harm that the wrong drugs can do to a developing brain. My firsthand experience suggests it's not too late to improve your nutritional status starting today, no matter what has gone down in the past.
That was an unusually good school system and even they couldn't figure out my child who was an enigma wrapped in a mystery concealed in shadows for so many years. About three years later at some new school in a different state, some teacher told us to "put him on ritalin" because she was so frustrated with dealing with him.
This so enraged my very quiet husband that he actually raised his voice at that meeting and told them where to stick it. This teacher was completely out of line and was NOT even suggesting we get our child assessed for attention span issues. No, they were skipping straight to "Please drug your child for MY convenience."
The child had already been assessed and ADHD had been ruled out as an explanation for his behavioral problems. This is significant because ADHD is supposed to be a diagnosis of last resort given after all other possible explanations have been ruled out.
When I was involved with The TAG Project, some people referred to issues like OCD, ASD and ADHD as "comorbidities" of high IQ because people with very high IQs so frequently have such issues. In practical terms, this means people with very high IQs are more likely to be Twice Exceptional -- gifted and also handicapped in some fashion.
When he was eight years old, I scribbled a note that said something like:
(DMG) DimethylglycineI had found this information on the internet as a list of supplements that might help ASD kids and I wrote it down so I could go shopping. I never found DMG but did give my child the above listed B vitamins and magnesium for about a year.
125mg tablets or capsules
take 2 - 3 weeks ("then add"),
vitamins B6, B5 then add B12/magnesium
Also when he was eight years old, he and I and his younger brother went shopping. It was his brother's birthday and his brother had gotten birthday money from various people and we were on a mission to let him buy video games for himself with his money.
My older son tried to dictate to his younger brother what to spend the birthday money on and at some point said something like "I'm not being mean/unreasonable. I'm willing to LET him spend SOME of it on himself."
This is one of those shake my head, roll my eyes moments from his childhood where it was clear to me there was no point in trying to punish him or even explain just then. Something was seriously messed up in his thought processes to a degree where "explaining" wasn't going to do any good.
So I turned to my younger son and told HIM "It's YOUR money. YOU get to decide how to spend it, not him."
So my younger child picked out something he liked and then couldn't find anything else he liked and still had money to spend. At that point, he decided to buy the game his brother was asking for in addition to what he was buying for himself.
I again rolled my eyes but stood by my statement that "It's YOUR money. It's YOUR decision." and I let him do that. Unbeknownst to me, he then used this as leverage over his brother and would have me lock the game up any time his brother was aggravating him too much because it was, in fact, HIS game, not his brother's.
I'm not sure exactly when I started my older son on the aforementioned supplements, but after about a year of being on them, at the age of nine my oldest said to me out of the blue "I finally understand why it was wrong to say I will LET him spend some of his money on himself."
This was pretty mind blowing stuff, sufficient that his Mouth From The South mother who NEVER shuts up just looked at him funny and said nothing while that sank in for me. He had also seen improvements in his terrible handwriting over the course of the previous months, which his dad tried to tell me was unrelated to the supplements and must be "because he plays video games all the time."
Yeah, sure. And I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona I would like to sell you too.
My oldest was eventually diagnosed with Atypical Cystic Fibrosis, which helps explain his tendency to be deficient in some things. Unsurprisingly, he still sometimes gets deficient and when he is short on B vitamins he gets difficult to deal with socially.
At such times, like when he was eight years old, I don't bother to argue with him. My standard reply to that these days is "I'm not discussing this further with you until we get some steak into you." as that is a good source of B vitamins that he tolerates well and is happy to eat and it generally fixes him right up.
My personal opinion is that most likely people with high IQs are probably generally in need of better nutrition for their brains -- especially B vitamins, which are water soluble, so very easy to become deficient in -- and this would resolve or mitigate the high levels of ADHD, ASD, OCD et al seen in this population.
Everything I have read indicates that the right nutritional support generally does a better job than prescription drugs of mitigating such issues in children and does not come with the downside of potential long term harm that the wrong drugs can do to a developing brain. My firsthand experience suggests it's not too late to improve your nutritional status starting today, no matter what has gone down in the past.