What is the difference between an aspie and a gifted child?

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http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Temaaften/Udsendels...142919.htm

I watched a bit of the "Fra en fremmed planet" (in english: "From an alien world"). It was about children who are gifted and like to pursue their special interests. They have difficulties with eye contact and "small talk" and they have difficulties being social.

Their grade is elementary school, but they have been transfered to a free school for gifted children. Here they are allowed to pursue their special interests but they will also have to learn about eye contact and other things that "normal" people do.

To me this sounds a lot like the pupils have Aspergers Syndrome, but there are nobody in the TV-documentary who refer to Aspergers Syndrome or autism at all. Nothing about autism or aspergers is mentioned.

So I am curious: What is the difference between a gifted child with social problems and problems with eye contact and a child with Aspergers Syndrome?

And what is the difference between a free school for gifted children and a special school for children with Aspergers Syndrome?

I think we need to understand the difference. Because I think a lot of these children are actually aspies. And in case they are, they go undiagnosed. And being an undiagnosed aspie in Denmark is NOT a good thing: Because we have compulsory military service (conscription). And when they turn 18 they will be drafted into the army. The danish military requires a lot of social contact and In fact the danish military is hell for an aspie. So they really need to get diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome if they have it, or they will be drafted into hell.

I sent an email to some of the free schools telling them I think these children are aspies.

What do you think? Are they aspies? Or are they not?

possibly, I'm not sure. When I was younger my teachers tried to push my mom into putting me into a gifted program and she politely declined, lol-go figure I'm finding out about all of this 20 years later. I've often thought about it and it's been so long that my mom doesn't even remember them offering, but I remember it down to the envelope, lol. It is unfortunate for the ones who do have it for it to not be checked out at all though

But that goes for a lot of things that go on in this world.... it's amazing how many psychos are sent off into the military as well, lol-just waiting for the day someone gives them a gun From stories I've heard from a friend he'd told them about his depression/anxiety issues for a good while before they sent him into the military, and one day he snapped on one of his higher ups-he was kicked out, lol, but nothing was even checked into until something actually happened from it.

He said there were a lot of people who had worse off issues than him-but because it was never taken to a higher up, or complained about, they weren't looked at as any different in the least bit.

I think going to a school for gifted children is one of the best things that could happen for an aspie. My dad almost enrolled me in one, and to this day I wish that he had. I wouldn't have gotten bored with school and given up trying to win the approval of teachers who were (to put it bluntly) dumb, and my life would probably be entirely different.

The children may be both gifted an aspie, and maybe their parents already know about the aspiness?

Hi dktekto,

I think your observations make a lot of sense, and that it's good that you wrote to those schools. Most gifted children/people aren't Aspies, though - maybe these kids go to special schools because they can't cope with the social jungles at regular schools, rather than because they're gifted?

I think I would have been better off, too. Oh well, c'est la vie, and stuff

Yeah, I would have liked to go to a school like this. I wanted to work I didn't want to do all the social rubbish or interact with the other children.

As for whether the children in the programme are aspies, I didn't see it so I can't comment.

However, I don't think that being gifted is the same as being an aspie. A child can be gifted but have no asperger-style traits what soever. A child can be an aspie and not be gifted in any particular way. Or you can be an apspie and gifted.

Admittedly, there is bound to be some overlap as many aspies have above average IQs and can turn their obsessive interests to their advantage by becoming an 'expert' on subjects that relate to their academic work, and/or that could benefit them in their chosen career. However, I don't think it would be accurate to say that all gifted children are aspies or that all aspies are gifted.

Those gifted children could be plain Aspies or NTs with social difficulties... I guess we just have to look at the side effects of AS to define which is really AS.

Everybody told me I should take the test and enroll in a middle school for gifted children back when I was in primary school and I declined it myself- I'm really glad I had that insight; despite the fact that most of my classmates are of average intelligence, I'm really happy to be in a normal school... it takes a lot of energy to study in a NORMAL school and I couldn't possibly imagine that with my parents' high expectations, what would have become of me in a school that would have been twice as hard.

Despite my deplorable grades i squeaked into gifted classes by the time I was in Jr. High.
I'd say there were Aspie-like kids and NT kids...in those classes.
The NT kids..(and I am not trying to NT bash here)...tended to be more snooty, judgemental, smart-alecky....yeah they were smart and also had a good grasp on social behaviour and whatnot...the aspie-like kids were more ahem...non-conformist...which equated to being "nerdy"...There were some neutral kids...who were not judgemental and smart alecky and and not nerdy either...I guess they coulda gone either way..
I got alot of flack because I was regarded as "nerdy"...but "not very smart"

Many aspies ARE gifted! But Gifted just means you have a penchant for learning, and have availed yourself of it. The definition is simply someone with an IQ over 130, as I recall. There isn't really any other requirement. Since Aspies can't be real stupid, they are more likely to tend to be smart which means more are gifted or better.

Steve

I was both back in school in the '60's. I knew about the gifted part but didn't find out about the autism part until 30 yrs. later. There were about 20 of us starting in the 3rd grade thru highschool. We were segregated from the rest of the student population, though in the same schools. Looking back(which I'm doing a lot of lately) I think others in my class were autistic as well. If I had to do it over again I'd probably decline the gifted school offer. It alienated me from everyone I grew up with as a kid and made me stand out more than the autism ever would.

The rate of savantism within either autism or AS (I forgot which) is somewhere around 10%, where in the general population, it is 1%. So statistically, incredibly gifted students are more likely to be AS (causally vice versa [AS students are more likely to be incredibly gifted than non-AS students]), with the social eccentricities (handicaps) being co-incidental.

So essentially "What is the difference between an aspie and a gifted child?", is about the same as "What is the difference between a person who is tall and a basketball player?"

I was in the Norwegian Navy. Relax. He'll probably be kicked out of recruit camp after a few days if he has trouble with coordination, etc.

My guess is that the difference is the degree of functionality. Does the child bathe/ change clothes without melting down, does he eat more than 2 foods, can he carry on somewhat normal social interaction or is everything fraught with tension/ difficulty/ melting down. If the child is highly functional than they are gifted. If they are not functional they are HFA/AS or something else.

I was in a gifted program for 2 years (where they pull you out of class and have you do special assignments/ tasks). From what I remember, most of the other kids seemed NT. We were often given problems to solve in groups. Of course, I couldn't work in groups, so I would sit there silently and look like an idiot...

A child with Aspergers isn't necessarily gifted. Also, a child with social problems and problems with eye contact doesn't necessarily have Aspergers.

Aspergers isn't the only cause for social problems, they could have any number of problems e.g. being socially ostracised by being sent to a special school might have affected them etc. etc.

There is a saying that if you have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail; Asperger's Syndrome is not the only cause and explanation for social problems.

This isn't actually true...the statistics show that people with AS are actually less likely to be incredibly gifted (by the traditional definition of over 3 standard deviations above mean)

The overall average IQ of people with AS is slightly higher than normal, but this is merely tautological as the diagnostic criteria specify that incidence of retardation rules out an AS diagnosis.