Article About Intellectual Giftedness

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http://hk101.org/content/view/64/163/

You don't have to be that kid to have those problems... I got the results of my neuro testing back on Friday and my WAIS-III IQ test placed me in the 93rd percentile, which according to wikipedia is in the lower end of the "gifted" spectrum. I identify with a lot of the symptoms described for intellectual giftedness -- although admittedly many of them are the same or similar symptoms as caused by autism.

What you won't find with non-autistic people in those IQ ranges is that in spite of being socially isolated they don't have discomfort with eye contact, difficulty reading people or apparently as much suicidal ideation. I wonder though about that last one, if that happens to us more because of those additional problems, or if it's also common with "gifted" kids, but that the research came to a premature conclusion. I know that there's not much in the way of accessible research into suicide amongst ASD patients - and I personally have yet to see the "methods" section of the report that claims the rate is 50x the average.

Article could have been written a little better imo, but I'm willing to overlook the brief comment about faith-healers. And honestly the big reason why the comment about faith-healers is a problem is because a) they've been demonized by scientism and b) not enough people are familiar with the scientific realities of placebic effects.

There seem to be some common traits which are associated with the "neurologically funky" (people outside the neurological and cognitive norm), whether you're talking about someone with giftedness, ADHD, Tourette's, autism, a learning disability, etc., such as social isolation, difficulty with change, emotional sensitivity, sensory processing problems, and so forth. Giftedness is also associated with perserverative interests.

I read something one time where a bunch of teachers were given the checklist of common traits of gifted people without being told what it was- they all thought it was a checklist for ADHD.

One in every three million is not actually true. Giftedness is defined, generally by schools, as "IQ>140", and that is about one in two hundred. Other schools use "special talent" as a criterion, which does not depend on IQ.

They may have meant to say that "child prodigies are one in three million", a statement I could agree with. "Gifted children" as the school system defines them are generally studying at grade level or one or at most two grades ahead--not entering university at age nine.

That also means that being one in two hundred is an advantage, but it is not a guarantee that you will be successful. There are an awful lot of other people at that level; and by the time you reach university or graduate school, you will be only about average, with classmates who are either very good at working hard, very good at learning, or else high-level geniuses.

Oh, and those non-gifted people? Yeah, they can go pretty far. Apparently, those people with specific talents, or those who are simply good at hard work, can do as much as the gifted people despite measuring average or below on an IQ test.

Need I repeat it? IQs don't mean nearly as much as people think they do.

My grandma used to say that It's not the gift but what you do with it that counts.

The area of identification of Asperger's and Giftedness is an extremely interesting and confusing one. I am sure it has caused many a child/adult to be misdiagnosed.

I am a teacher of the gifted in a public high school. My job title lists me as a Gifted Intervention Specialist. So I have had training in the area of giftedness. Since I have been diagnosed as Asperger's, I have done my share of research in that area too. Here is most of a post I made on another forum. I have copy/pasted it here because I feel like it is important enough to share.

This is an area we need to be very careful about. I suspect there may be several who may determine that they may not be as AS as at first thought---the reason???---Giftedness. I placed a post on this once. And I have done a bit of research on this before I was diagnosed with Asperger's.

Here is the thing:
Asperger's can exist along with Giftedness (but not real common).
Asperger's can exist without Giftedness (usually).
Giftedness can exist with Asperger's (as stated before---not real common).
Giftedness can exist without Asperger's (which it usually does. Most gifted people do not have Asperger's).

The problem with this is---giftedness and Asperger's share similar traits. In fact, it is quite easy to be misdiagnosed here. A gifted child can be easily confused by many as having Asperger's. And an Asperger's child could be misdiagnosed as being gifted if their narrow interests produce talents---like in my case. I was placed in the gifted program when I was in school. So, when I suspected Asperger's for me, I did a lot of research in seeing the little, and not so little differences, in how these conditions exist by themselves and with each other (co-morbid). I determined I was Asperger's, with the possibility of giftedness (Though I doubt to some extent the giftedness anymore). Then, I made my appointment to be evaluated. After considering my traits and interests, it was undeniable that I had Asperger's. So if I am gifted, it exists co-morbid with my Asperger's.

I encourage you to read about this. I feel it is very important. There are checklists to see where you fall in the two areas of giftedness and Asperger's. Though they do in many ways share the same traits---there are distinct differences. This is a big part of my studies since I am a gifted intervention specialist by profession in a public high school.

Here is an example of this in my life. I am considered extremely talented in music. I play many instruments professionally. Am I gifted? Probably, but not as much as first thought. Why??? Because I would never have played music had it not been for extreme narrow interests/obsessions over certain musical instruments (Asperger's trait). I became intensely fascinated by the electronic organ as a little child. I loved staring at all the colorful buttons and tabs. The mechanics of the instrument thrilled me to no end and it virtually occupied most of my free thinking time. Even though I loved the sound of the music those instruments produced, I was equally as fascinated by the looks and mechanics of the organ. Then, my parents (Santa Clause) got me an organ. I quickly learned to play it well. And it is largely responsible for my musical interests today. I do admit however that although I was very intrigued with the sound of the music that came out of those organs, I had immense satisfaction in just staring at them in the music stores without playing them.

Did I learn to play music because I was gifted and wanted to learn music? No, not without the fascination for the instrument first. I played music because I was fascinated by the gadgetry on the electonic organ (autistic trait). Had these fancy gizmos not existed on the organ at that time, I would never have gotten interested in it. The same thing happened with other instruments I play such as the hammered dulcimer and its looks. In order to display my fascination for the instrument---I have taught myself how to play them well.

I noted that before. It's a very valid point you make. Kind of like which came first, Robin Hood or the Bow which is something most people can relate to.
Robin could not have been the ultimate marksman until the engineering of the British longbow had been perfected.
I enjoy your posts but probably few people know anything at all about what you're talking about most of the time so it's really refreshing to see you interject reality into most threads.

Seems to me like motivation is part of giftedness. That's why I don't like the "high IQ" criterion much; there's more to innovating or excelling at something than just having the intelligence to do it. You've got to have the interest and be able to sustain the effort to get good at it, too.

I agree in that pure intelligence is far overated as it seldom gets anywhere. Kind of reminds me of the old commercial of the old lady asking 'Where's the Beef".

I wish I were "intelligent". Instead, I settle for being "sub-par".
Ah well, there is exceeding bliss ignorance.

Any links/references to said checklists would be most appreciated!

I agree that in a holistic sense, IQ individually doesn't have much effect on outcomes. It seems the only thing that scientists have really been able to agree on with regard to IQ as of yet is that it's a good predictor of academic success. So, woohoo! But then I'm not personally looking toward IQ as a magic pill or magic bullet for anything. I know where I placed and I'm pretty sure that my mental capacity has always been fairly similar - it may be improving now that I'm slowly teaching myself the mysterious way of the Optimist (that surround us and penetrate us and bind the universe together). Did I mention I'm not looking for a magic bullet? What I'm doing really is just trying to piece things together for myself, figure out what's reliable advice and what's not, where my strengths and weaknesses are, so that I can work on myself and my life... which at the moment is royally screwed... but is thankfully slowly getting better as a result of my research into the science of emotions and thought. The more I can learn about the specific interrelationships, the better armed I'll be to make surgical decisions about repairing my life.

p.s. thanks to everyone for the replies on this topic!

There's also another interesting phenomenon in psychology that cognitively we seem to tend to compensate for our strengths by becoming lazy. In security for example, installing an alarm gives you a sense of security and so as a result you become more relaxed about your behavioral security risks where you should be staying diligent. If we install a firewall in an IT department, people in the office suddenly forget that email may still be dangerous.

Good point Eschatar, a link would be nice. I had some information on this, but can't find the others on the internet right now. But I do remember this one. It is a book excerpt (lot of the book actually) called Different Minds. It focuses a lot on the conditions of giftedness/Asperger's, and other conditions---how they can exist together, etc.

I hope this link works. Once into the site, you can click on the "preview this book" link to read it. If not, you can search this:

Different Minds: Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome
When you get into it, it lets you scroll through a lot of pages from the book.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id= ... lt#PPP1,M1

I will try to find the other sites. But the way I think I found them was be searching under gifted asperger comorbid.

I was in the gifted program for all of a week in grade 5 after taking a couple of IQ tests (of note, that year was the highest functioning I've ever been). They kicked me out when they realized I wouldn't do schoolwork unless I was coerced to do it (i.e., it was put in front of me and I was told to do it), nor did I listen to them.

A high IQ means naught in my case, and that's because I so happen to have something else in addition to intellectual giftedness.

(I don't think I'm gifted anymore; the worsening of my autism in adolescence seemed to affect my IQ, perhaps because I was and am more hyper-focused, and multiple questions easily overwhelm me.)

I was gifted and with classic autism; that's probably a rare combination.