Diagnosis of Hyperactivity Disorder in Gifted Children Depends on Observational Sources

Abstract

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) is often reported in gifted children. Several authors, however, suggest that gifted children, in fact display AD/HD-like behaviors, especially at school due to boredom resulting from academically understimulating environments. In order to clarify this issue, a study was conducted on 37 gifted children based on four different observational assessments of hyperactivity disorder (father, mother, teacher, child), using the Conners Rating Scale - Revised. The main results show that teachers at school observe less hyperactivity disorder than parents at home, and their perception is similar to that of the children. These fi ndings underline the importance of understanding hyperactive behavior situationally, i.e., in the context of the relational dynamics arising between a child expressing him or herself through a particular behavior and an environment that perceives this particular behavior and responds to it with different tolerance thresholds according to the observers.