Customer Reviews

Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults: ADHD, Bipolar, Ocd, Asperger's, Depression, and Other Disorders

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Twice exceptional children, that is those who are both gifted and learning disabled, are an enigma to parents and professionals alike. And because of the overlap in characteristics, some gifted children are diagnosed as having other exceptionalities, when they are really just exhibiting characteristics of giftedness. Figuring these kids out is difficult, at best.

Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults should be read by all. Parents will find great information and detailed vignettes describing many dual exceptionalities and misdiagnoses. Professionals, whether medical, psychological, or educational, will find the differential information that will enable them to stop pathologizing normal behaviors of the gifted, and to stop missing real diagnoses that were previously excused as characteristics of giftedness. And gifted adults will find confirmation of the differences they may have struggled with all their lives, that no one could ever explain before. While the book does not replace professional counseling, it does offer great first steps towards dealing with both the frustrating characteristics of giftedness, and the symptoms of dual exceptionalities.

Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses is a valuable resource for parents, teachers, and professionals from both psychological and medical communities. It should be among every school's counseling resources, and every pediatrician's reading list. And parents of both gifted and twice exceptional kids should make time to read it.

Bottom line: I LOVE it! And though I wish I had it years ago, I found several very valuable sections to help with my own kids even now, plus tons of great information to recommend to both parents and professionals who come to Hoagies' Page seeking help.

Half the royalties from purchases of Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults go to support the nonprofit organization SENG - Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted www.sengifted.org!

If it weren't for this book, and for James Webb, I might have believed the teachers and psychologists who told me that something was really wrong with my daughter. After reading this book, I realized that several things were really right with her, but that we weren't handling her in the ways most likely to help her adapt and succeed.

With the help of this book, some enlightened professionals, and my own observations of my girl, we have succeeded in helping her find her way within the school, with her peer group, and with adults.

If you have a child being labeled as having Aspergers, ADHD, etc. and one who is very bright, get this book. It may be that the disabilities are there, but it may not. Too many of our teachers, social workers, and psychologists are too eager to slap on a label and let themselves off the hook. Don't give up on your kid, and don't let them do it either.

This book will help you find ways to evaluate what you are seeing, and what you are being told, and it will help you find ways to respond constructively.

My Mom likes this book for its information about giftedness and wishes she had read it when she was fighting with my school.
However, I don't like the attitude that giftedness is OK but no other difference is OK. I'm a gifted autistic. I value myself not only as a gifted person but also as an autistic person. Their portrayal of autistics is stereotypical and has little relationship to how I and other autistics actually think.
I first got upset about the ADHD section (which comes first) because a) they stated why gifted kids might do a behavior but only implied why ADHDers might do it, which makes it hard to actually differentiate, and b) they portray ADHDers as pathological. At one point they say "this behavior can be better understood as non-pathological..." about why gifted kids do it. Pathological means pertaining to disease. ADHD, autism and other neurological differences are not diseases. They don't kill people, and if given proper support they don't make the person any less happy or healthy. I was very unhappy in school because I was bullied for acting strangely, but now that I'm homeschooled I'm much happier, though the bullying has left emotional scars I'm trying to heal from.

As both a parent of a "challenging" child and a school counselor, I found this book to be a wonderful reframe of our often punitive and pathological way of looking at the behavior of children. The book does a wonderful job of separating out the symptoms that meet the DSM IV criteria for diagnosis and what to look for that might challenge that diagnosis. As a parent it gave me tools to advocate for my child. I gained a better understading of the questions that I might want to pose to those who are a part of my child's education. As an advocate for children, it gave me wonderful information to pass on to parents, teachers and school administrators. Most importantly it challenged my view of the school system in general. When are we going to learn that the STARS tests do not reflect the real world, and that children need social skills training way beyond Kindergarten? When will we be able to see our children for their unique gifts and not simply their ability to conform to the classroom setting? I got so much out of this book and I am still processing it. I highly recommend this book for parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists and anyone who works with, or loves children.

Long overdue, excellent description of how gifted children and adults have innate traits that are too often pathologized by educators, psychologists, and others who simplistically view certain behaviors and jump to diagnoses. Contrasts diagnosis criteria from DSM-IV with other information that should be checked out which would invalidate a psychological diagnosis. In other words, gifted children have certain personality traits that can be expressed by certain behaviors, but are totally normal for this group. The authors rightly point out that DSM criteria have exceptions for those of low IQ, but no corresponding exceptions for the exceptionally gifted, who have a constellation of unique personality traits. The focus is mainly on children and on a small number of diagnoses; it would be useful to expand their work to encompass more mis-diagnoses and more about adults.

Many common behaviors of gifted kids (and adults) can look like symptoms of ADHD, Depression, Aspergers, and other psychiatric or medical conditions... and too many kids are being misdiagnosed, labeled, and sometimes medicated by well-meaning but perhaps uninformed professionals. This is a much needed book - the only one that I know of - that looks at the similarities and differences between the "symptoms" of giftedness and such disorders so that parents and professionals can be better positioned to avoid misdiagnosis... or better understand the overlap between characteristics of giftedness and other conditions. This is truly an important contribution to giftedness literature.

As wife/husband physicians who specialize in the treatment of children with learning problems, we've often wished we had a book on this topic to give to our patients, and this book has more than fulfilled our wishes. The authors carefully and thoroughly assess the difficulties of evaluating gifted children for some of the most common behavioral/psychological disorders, and in so doing shed new light on many often misunderstood behavioral characteristics of gifted children. Dr. James Webb, co-author of one of the most important and helpful books in the gifted child literature--"Guiding the Gifted Child"--has assembled a team of experts from a variety of clinical disciplines to write this book, and the benefit of their different perspectives clearly shows through. One of the best things about this book is that it's written in a style and at a level that can benefit everyone from full time clinicians to educators to parents, and even to gifted tweens and teens. Since it's publication, we've recommended it frequently to many of our patients.

Included at the beginning are examples of problems, such as: "My job evaluation says I am too impatient with others..."; "My spouse says that I am too involved in too many things to the neglect of the family. We're wondering if I have a manic depressive disorder."

The authors acknowledge that gifted adults and children are not immune from emotional or behavioral problems, but caution that supposed problems need to be evaluated in the family and social context, and considered as potential "outgrowths of unusually high intellect or creativity."

Specific examples of potential disorders and disabilities are discussed in ways that can help adults, parents and therapists better understand and help without needlessly pathologizing gifted traits.

Many people do need and benefit from mental health intervention, but being incorrectly diagnosed as having behavioral, emotional, or mental disorders can lead to exceptional people losing faith in their abilities, and being treated with inappropriate or even destructive medication and therapy, and can prevent the full expression of their talents - gifts our world needs more than ever.

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would.

_Misdiagnoses and Dual Diagnoses_ may be the single most important book I have read on giftedness *ever*. Dr. Webb and his colleagues have written about one of the most frustating aspects of parenting a gifted child -- the unending question: When is a behavior pathological and when is it 'normal' (for a gifted individual)? It is so rare to find 'experts' who accept giftedness as a relevant factor to consider. With this book, finally, parents have a resource for finding answers.

It is very difficult to raise a gifted or highly gifted child without unasked for input from friends, teachers, and other professionals. Many of them are well-intended, but they don't understand that giftedness is not a grade on a term paper or a captaincy of the debate club -- it's a whole picture, and it comes with plenty of quirks that make 'fitting in' difficult for the gifted individual and the people around them. It is very easy for a doctor or a psychologist or a well-intended teacher to stick a label on a child without considering the context. Parents who read this book can't help but become better advocates for their gifted children, whatever the accurate labels may be.

As an advocate for gifted homeschoolers, I will be recommending this book (along with _Guiding the Gifted Child_) to anyone and everyone who lives or works with gifted children. With any luck, it will put me at least partially out of business!

Finally, I have found a book that is saying what I have been saying all along. Stop looking at the behaviors of a child to determine if they have AS, look at the circumstances, experiences, and lifestyle that have contributed to the behavior! This book also taught me that a child can be gifted in some areas and be average, or below average in other areas!
This book helped me with the "professionals" at my daughter's school. I could show them that the sensory "overexcitabilities" are the same for AS as in some gifted children. She has no other signs of AS, except for the sensory issues. So naturally, they jumped high and far to the conclusion of AS! I am so glad I bought this book. It truly takes a parent of a gifted child to understand what the authors are talking about!