Learning disorders/ADHD/Giftedness history in family

Post Reply New Topic

Hello everyone,

I cannot seem to find any great information about the "risks" of having an autistic child apart from the usual "Autism history in your family". I remember having read something about a "learning disorder history" in families in which someone has been diagnosed with AS when there was no Autism history but cannot find it again.

Do you think there is a link between Autism and other mental differences as ADHD/ADD, giftednedd or learning disorders ?

I am undiagnosed because I am still looking for informations about Autism and the way adult Asperger were diagnosed in my country since this disorder is highly underdiagnosed and unknown by many people but from what I have read, it seems that many Aspies have a learning disorder or ADD.

Almost every of this disorders had been suspected in me by teachers, psychologists, professors, classmates, headmasters since I was 3.

There is no history of Autism in my family. (And I may not be, I don't know).

On my mother's side, there is an history of dyslexia and dyspraxia, there are also many people who have been suspected of giftedness but have not been tested.
My grandmother is dyslexic, she had never been diagnosed because they did not diagnosed children at the time but she confused many letters, had troubles reading, confuses her left and right. She worked on it by herself and became the best reader of her school and succeeded in learning maths though she had a lot of difficulties.
One of ther son is probably gifted or have an above-average IQ according to the school tests he took.
The other is dyspraxic and hypersensitive to sounds (he can hear ultrasounds).
Her daughter is also dyspraxic but it may be caused by her left-handedness.
Her second daughter, my mother, has memories issues expect for "images" of the past (but she usually don't remember an old conversation, a past event, a date, etc).
My grandfather's father was an artist, he could draw someone he had seen only once perfectly.
My grandfather was hypersentivie to sounds also.

On my father's side (because I have such a normal family) :
My grandmother is dyslexic and has the same problem as my other grandmother (she was tested when we learnt that my cousin was dyslexic).
My cousin is dyslexic and has ADD (obviously not AS, she is so not misdiagnosed).
My uncle is dyspraxic.
My father is borderline AS since he does not seek a social life but can have one easily, had a strong interest in only one subjetc (mechanics) but he is only gifted (IQ : 162, tested twice).

And my twin-brother is a lot like me : has a special narrow interest (mechanics, computers), used to lack of social life expect on the Internet (but now he basically met all his online friends when we moved and has a job which requires him to be more social), enjoys solitude sometimes, rarely expresses his feelings, was bullied (though less than me), etc but he has no disorder and seems to be more like my father.

As for me, dyspraxia, dyslexia or dyscalculia (somehow proven wrong when I became the better student in math class at 12-14 because the method was different), ADD/ADHD had been suspected when I was a kid (well, even at 3). ADD is still beind suspected by my teachers, as well as social phobia. The headmasters usually think I am an average student (base on my strange grades which can go from D to A depending on the year or the month, but not since I am at university and I do feel better intellectually here ) though I have no social skill and do not seem to understand what is normal .
Giftedness has never been suspected, some school tests seemed to indicate this but other really did not, but most teachers thought I did not use all of my abilities and was lazy (somewhat true).

Thus, I cannot say that anyone has Autism in my family but we do have an history of learning disorders or different "brain".
I can't say that I have AS either yet, I may not, but I do relate with other aspies most of the time.

Does anyone here have a family in which there is no Autism history but a learning disorder history or both (or none) ?

No my family has a history of autism, but Family's with a history of Nervous conditions such as Renaud's Syndrome might be more prone to having autism

I havent noticed any autism traits in my familly but ive found out that they have really high IQs on my moms side. like over 140 high.

I have a sibling who's labeled as gifted but either acts stupid or doesn't know s**t about anything, a father with obvious undiagnosed learning disorders and possibly autism. But this might not help you, because my family seems to have a lot of autistic traits.

Yes and many places that test for gifted make it a point to say that many that have been diagnosed with learning disorders and other such things
are being given 'wrong labels'

A person only has to look outside of their own very limited box to see that there is something wrong with all these diagnosis that can be
diagnosed as another thing just as easy. How many people have been diagnosed one thing and could be a month later diagnosed another, by a different doctor.

and look at the ones from the past, that were gifted, they all seem to be getting labels of learning disorders and other such things now.

do a google search for the term "broader autism phenotype" and i think you will find relevant information

In my own case, I can see that many of my relatives on my mother's side would qualify for an asperger's diagnosis or at least show a lot of tendencies, many have very high IQ's.
I have four children, 3 of whom are on the spectrum, one of these gifted, one with ADHD in addition to AS; my NT also shows symptoms of ADHD.

Thank you, though I did not find anything about ADD/ADHD, giftedness or learning disabilities, it seems that borderline AS personalities are linked with autism (we seem to be only 3 showing these traits yet). I do not know whether it is a good thing or a bad thing to know that (but now I now that whether I have AS or not I'm obviously on the broader autism phenotype).

It seems that giftedness "run" in Autistic families and I do believe Surya about the fact thatm any people with a high IQ tend to have mental disorders as well, actually, people with learning disorders or ADD seem to have either a low iQ or a high IQ though I'm sure we can find many of them with an avergae IQ, it seems more usual than among the "normal" population.

there has been talk in other posts about possibility of confusion in diagnosis between giftedness / AS but i don't know what anyone's sources are.

not a thorough search but here are a few things i found that mention or allude to relationships between all of the above:

http://talentdevelop.com/character.html - "giftedness characteristics"
.. excerpt from that page:
"there seems to be overlap among gifted traits and those of 'disorders,' including nonverbal and language-based learning disabilities*, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder."

* (you can find info on NLD in the general autism discussion page, sticked near top .. think it's called "NLD information and support thread")

----------

on the concept of "excitabilities" in gifted children:
http://www.stephanietolan.com/dabrowskis.htm
http://www.giftedservices.com.au/Starti ... ities.html

----------

basal ganglia ("ring of fire") ADD (which includes sensory sensitivities):
http://www.second-hand-news.com/basal.html

----------

also no time for me to look through it now but you might find this interesting:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/sensory_integration.htm

----------

i also think there is a relationship between AS and Tourettes. on ADD/AS - confusing topic as some diagnosticians consider ADD traits to fall under the umbrella of AS when a diagnosis of AS is met and others will diagnose AS and ADD/ADHD concurrently. i read in Tony Attwood's book something about a cluster of conditions he had noticed in some: AS/ADD/OCD .. and maybe the fourth was PTSD, i don't recall.

i can't find anything about "broad autism phenotype" with learning disabilities or giftedness mentioned either, now that i look, but i think the links above indicate some relationship between them. IMO we have chiseled down diagnosis of these things into so many subtypes i wonder if there really is a learning disability spectrum with a vast array of possible traits and manifestations that is part of the BAP - but that is just my opinion.

some time ago i saw some videos on youtube posted by a young girl who had been diagnosed with dyslexia, tourettes, OCD, and ADD, and looked to be wearing Irlen glasses. how many diagnoses can one person have??

here she is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Lovelivetou ... fEP2O9KCqQ