Giftedness versus Asperger's

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I was considered gifted as a child, and now I am being tested for Asperger's.

The term 'gifted' does not get used in Scotland's schools, although I've heard English mums, on parenting forums, saying that their child has been identified as 'gifted and talented'. Here, it will be noticed by teachers, etc, that children are good at X or Y, but they don't go any lists or get pushed or skip a year, etc. So, for me to say that my daughter is gifted, the label would be coming from me.

Anyway, that aside, my daughter's teachers have noted that she is highly creative and has shown talent, way beyond what would be expected of a 6yr old, in art. She's also very interested in science and her knowledge and understanding of anything scientific is more akin to a child double her age. Alongside this, she has an Aspergers diagnosis which, although clear cut at the time, is now almost undetectable. The diagnosis was less than 3 months ago and she was showing a lot of traits, although she wasn't obvious to most. But, since then, we have seen dramatic improvements in her behaviour. One of the teachers, at a singing workshop she has been attending for 2 years, said that he can't see any autistic traits now, whereas she had been very difficult to manage up until the summer. She's just blossomed there, as well as at home and at an athletics class she goes to. I knew she was doing well and I thought this was happening despite (or maybe even due to) the Aspergers.

I'm now beginning to question the diagnosis. Is she just gifted? She definitely has sensory processing issues, just as I do. However, instead of complaining about them, screaming and having tantrums/meltdowns, she's learning to put up with them or to deal with her discomfort in more emotionally mature ways (she has even told me that she's finding this or that to be not nice, but she's not going to complain or moan about it). She has concentration difficulties, which are clearly due to sensory issues. Could she be gifted, along with having sensory processing disorder?

Giftedness and being autistic aren't mutually exclusive, it is possible to be both...

in that case the label twice exceptional is used.

I recommend "Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults" by James T. Webb PhD.

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/M ... edir_esc=y

I am gifted and autistic.

To people who say talents have nothing to do with autism, I disagree. I don't think it makes any sense to split up my talents and my difficulties as separate things, when they come out of the same underlying traits.

I see my creative giftedness and executive dysfunction as two sides of the same coin, for example. I am uninhibited, which means I don't worry about whether it's any good while the creative flow is there, but also means I talk about personal details with random strangers, and have no ability to hide what I'm really feeling. And I'm disorganized, so I tend to forget things, and don't remember them in the right context, but when I do remember them I'm more likely to make unexpected connections between different things.

For another example, I have intense interests, which are an autistic trait, but also a gifted trait. It's hard for me to focus on or learn about something that doesn't hold my interest, which is a negative aspect of it. But at the same time, my interest leads me to research topics, which I understand in depth and come to insights about. In university, having an intense interest in the topic of your major is a big advantage. And the fact that I was researching psychology and genetics for fun as a kid means I'm way ahead of other undergraduate students in my understanding of what I'm studying.

Also, autistic traits are more common at either extreme of intelligence. Both cognitively disabled and gifted kids have a higher rate of autistic traits than those of average intelligence.

I'd rather be diagnosed with Asperger's than never diagnosed with giftedness if I had the same problems.

I'm also considering that my daughter's 'issues' with other kids her age might be compounded by the fact that she's so much brighter than a lot of them. She was speaking with her 2 friends (well it's on and off, but they're the best female friends she has in school). She was talking about Hurricane Sandy and they were arguing with her that it wasn't real. I swear, these 7yr old girls (actually a fair bit older than my daughter) thought the story was like a fairytale. She ended up arguing with them about it and got really annoyed. So, it looks like she's the one with the problem, when the truth of the matter is that she felt she was hitting her head against a brick wall. I remember having similar conversations with kids, when I was younger too.

I'm gifted and autistic. I think one of the most frustrating things about it for me was that my problems were denied and derided as just me being lazy (among many other insults and insulting characterizations), and my mother insisted that being gifted meant no cognitive difficulties, even though the evidence was right there all along.

It happens online as well, as people have very rigid ideas about what being gifted means, and that I have cognitive abilities I do not actually have (or at least developed much later than is typical) or that I have never had particular experiences that I have actually had.

I feel that giftedness plays no part in autisim...lots of people are gifted..and on the other hand others are not.
there is so much talk about how people with autisim are gifted in some ways...i am not gifted in any way but still suffer the same issues as the rest of autistic people.
sometimes autistic people concentrate on things that make them happy..it could be a hobby or a subject that interests them...so give them the impression of being gifted...but just like normal people there is a lot of people can be gifted in certain subjects.

Autisim effects us all in different ways....but being gifted is not one of my so called traits of autisim.

I wonder if giftedness makes autistic traits moar severe, like social functioning is even worse amongst gifted autistic children, or gifted autistic children are even moar rigid.