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Different Minds: Gifted Children With Ad/Hd, Asperger Syndrome, and Other Learning Deficits

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Different Minds: Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome, and Other Learning Deficits. Twice Exceptional children, those who are both gifted and learning disabled, are often overlooked by all sides of education. Their achievement is often not low enough to be considered special needs, nor high enough to be included in gifted education. But these children are far from average, and they need particular attention to all of their unique attributes.

Deidre Lovecky is considered one of the foremost experts in twice exceptional children. This long-awaited book is a summary of many years of clinical experience and observation, and should in the hands of every parent, teacher, and professional working with this unique population.

Different Minds starts with definitions and differences: gifted, AD/HD, Asperger syndrome, and other learning deficits commonly (and not so commonly) diagnosed in the same children. Diagnosis of dual exceptionalities can be difficult, and Lovecky cuts through the overlapping characteristics, with references to DSM-IV criteria. Through case studies, discussion and suggestions, Lovecky offers years of experience and wisdom on how to best nurture these children at home and at school.

Different Minds includes chapters on gifted, AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome, cognitive issues, creativity, emotional aspects, social cognition and relationships, moral development, assessment, and resources for parents, teachers and professionals.

Different Minds should be required reading for everyone dealing with twice exceptional gifted children.

I am the mother of a six year old boy who is highly gifted but also has sensory integration dysfunction, ADHD, and many Asperger's traits. I have read numerous materials on giftedness and learning disabilities, but this book, along with "Uniquely Gifted" compiled by Kiesa Kay and also sold on amazon.com, has been the most helpful to me in understanding my son's unique learning and behavioral profile. Lovecky has extensive experience in evaluating twice exceptional children, and relates with specificity many case examples and provides concrete suggestions for helping these children. If you have a child like this, buy a copy for yourself, your child's teacher, the principal of your child's school, and any specialists that treat your child.

If you modified Dr. Lovecky's "Different Minds" to carry the normal amount of information per page as is found on average in books of this genre, it would weigh at least a 100 lbs. As a parent and a professional, I have found Dr. Lovecky's book to be the one I turn to time and again to explain the compexities of twice-exceptional children. Her clear understanding of how different "alphabet soup" issues interact is priceless. Dr. Lovecky offers sound, practical adivice for bringing out the best in almost any child. As a fairly high-level trade book with an abundance of complex material, the text is sometimes slow going. But it is worth the effort! I would recommend this book to parents who already have a basic knowledge of the subject matter. I would make it mandatory reading for all school personnel who place or interact with the children Dr. Lovecky describes. For those who need to start with more basic material, I would highly recommend Tictionary by Becky Ottinger. Although the use of the word Tic implies it is about Tourette's Syndrome, it actually presents a clear explanation of most things related to TS, ADHD, Aspergers, Autism, OCD and more. The Appendix of Ottinger's book is a gold mine.

I am so thankful to Deirdre Lovecky for writing this amazing book. It is a thorough analysys filled with insight and practical wisdom for parents and professionals. On the surface, I was worried the book would be too dry for me to get through. But I find myself turning to it time and again to help me with my 8 y.o. profoundly gifted/ADHD son. Just when I think I've got things figured out and I know how to handle him - BAM! Something else happens and we find ourselves flung into confusion. Different Minds is a go-to reference for those moments: the sticky social issues; the behavioral ups and downs; his moments of unusual, mature insight following a toddler-like tantrum. This book makes me feel like we are less alone and gives me as a parent, a resource to turn to which supplies me with ideas for acting in my child's best interest.

I have been reading book after book trying to figure out what is going on with my son, and I've finally found it! I had so many "a-ha" moments while reading Different Minds. Even the title speaks to me!

This book not only discusses the issue of twice-exceptionality (a new concept to me), it goes into great detail about characteristics of children with different exceptionality combinations. For example, ADHD is not lumped into one description...gifted kids with ADHD, inattentive-type are differentiated from gifted kids with ADHD, combined-type, based on the fact that their thought patterns, behaviors, and emotional reactions to situation can be markedly different. As an example, there is a paragraph that clearly describes why gifted kids have higher levels of anxiety, and how (in our case) inattentive-type ADHD can cause that anxiety to be even higher due to over-focus.

Another of the great things about Different Minds is that it gives very specific ideas on how to handle these issues. I needed practical, hands-on tools that I can use to help encourage, support and motivate, as well as cope with, my twice-exceptional son. I got some great ideas from this text that were very specific to our situation. The book discusses, as an example, how a behavior management technique that works with a boy with inattentive-type ADHD may not work with a girl with the same combination of issues. The specifics in this book are fantastic.

Also included are discussions of learning styles, which lead to several "a-ha" moments regarding my own personal learning style and that of those I interact with. I believe this can be invaluable in terms of learning to motivate people, both children and adults. This has helped us refine our home/bedroom organization system, as we are all visual-spatial and thus need to see our "stuff."

All this being said, the most important thing, for me, about this book is that after reading it, I did not feel so alone! I finally found a book that "gets" my child and makes him sound normal, at least for a twice-exceptional child!!

Yes, Deidre Lovecky writes in an academic style. I appreciate books that don't talk down to parents, but allow us to share in the data the experts have developed without dumbing it down.

If you have a gifted child, know that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The chances are very good that you are gifted, too. If you truly have a need for the wonderful information in this book, I suspect you will have little difficulty absorbing the concepts that will help you help your child.

Having encouraged parents to boldly go and read this book, I must also comment that whatever you find here that should be acknowledged and coped with by your child's teachers, school administrators, or psychologist, can be easily communicated by getting them a copy with appropriate passages marked. The book IS written professionally and for the benefit of other professionals as well as parents.

I first met Dr. Lovecky 14 years ago, and I was impressed then with her insight and interest into children who were gifted and demonstrated difficulties such as ADHD, Asperger's, etc. Her depth of clinical experience and observation has enabled her to develop and share keen insights that will help any parent or professional recognize and help a gifted child with an added exceptionality.

If you are a parent, or teacher/therapist/service provider, to a gifted child with ADHD or Asperger's, this is the best book around. I am puzzled by the reviews that say this is academic in tone - I actually thought it was a tremendously effective and accessible compendium of the seminal research in the field. Dr. Lovecky makes two big, valuable contributions in this book - she documents what we know, empirically, about ADHD and Asperger's kids with high IQs (the focus of much research and treatment is based on the average IQ population, and is not always helpful or appropriate to understanding and working with gifted kids), and she offers many concrete strategies for helping these "twice gifted" children at home and at school to develop strategies for problem solving, social skills development, etc. As a mom of a recently diagnosed, and long misunderstood, gifted son facing extreme executive function challenges, this book made me understand my son better and helped give me some insight into how I can better support him as a parent. I am giving copies to my family members to help them support him as well! THIS IS A FANTASTIC BOOK WORTH TWICE THE PRICE!!!! Thank you Dr. Lovecky for writing it.

This book helped me to understand my twice exceptional children better. I read it with a yellow highlighter in hand! I was so impressed with Dr. Lovecky that I sought her out to conduct an extensive assessment for my son. She is a true advocate for gifted children; especially those with labels such as ADD, AS, etc.

Though I have not yet read her book, I am a former patient of Dr. Lovecky and can attest to the effectiveness and insight that she embodies. I was in sessions with her for several years, and found that, in those years, I developed a stronger social connection with those around me. She carefully and tactfully helped me to understand the various complexities of social interaction, while navigating me through the barriers of dealing with cruelty from my peers, an uncaring school system, and my own personal faults. I couldn't speak higher of any doctor I have ever interacted with, nor could I ever forget the impact she made on my life. I hope to reconnect with her someday to personally thank her for allowing me to overcome the difficulties of ADD.

Dr. Lovecky's book was a God-send for us. We thought it might provide good insights into one of our sons, who we knew was smart and has ADHD. And indeed it did, on so many of its pages! FINALLY, we found something that described him, and we had hope for breakthroughs with him!

What we didn't expect was to find that the book also provided insights into our other son, who we knew was smarter than most, but who had never been diagnosed with ADHD. We found "him" also "jumping off the pages."

Long story short: we got in touch with Dr. Lovecky and traveled a long way on two different trips to have each boy evaluated by her. We are so glad that we did!