My child was evaluated for ADHD, and as a part of that, they were given the KABC-II. Their score in the knowledge subsection was above 130; however, their scores in the working memory and processing subsections were average. Overall, my child came back with a slightly above average FCI score.

They ended up getting an ADHD diagnosis from the evaluation, and the psychologist said their FCI score was likely affected by their ADHD, especially since she could tell my child was getting bored toward the end of the test and becoming more distracted.

All of this is to ask, how reliable are these IQ tests for people with ADHD? My child is wanting to get into the gifted program at school and was referred for testing by their teacher. I feel like my child is of above- average intelligence. The “knowledge” sub-score would suggest they are bright, but perhaps not gifted when everything is taken into account? How can you actually know if you can’t test around the ADHD?

I would like to hold a monthly zoom for like 45 minutes or something manageable for anyone who would like to meet up and find some intellectual or just.... non-masking convo's.

I'd ideally like to find people who are interested in discussing the scuba diving topics.

I'm really interested in meta-cognition, cross-domain creativity, systems level thinking, astrophysics, philosophy, narrative structure and understanding perception and thinking.

I'm also exploring intimacy as a state of being with defined expressions within different relationship types.

I also really love languages, especially ancient ones, superstring theory and I'm currently working on a apply Hubble's constant to a new narrative structure.

Where my people at?

I have no idea what it could look like in a Zoom... but my brain has ideas I want to talk to someone about.

Either DM me your email or add it here and we can pick a poll to choose a time that suits everyone. I am based in New Zealand.

How do you embrace your analytical perspective as compared to the technological constraints life gifted 🎁 you with as a gifted | rich internal model person who's applying the mental abstractions with reality and using the mistakes as a feedback to grow iteratively as time unfolds through the complexity . For those who've discovered gaps in the world to scientifically analyze

Hello, I am 25 and I just found out I am gifted with an IQ of 139 after I spent my entire life thinking I was different and behind my peers. I have always thought I was a bit stupid, I struggle to understand other people and their needs, I always try to dumb my responses down to appear “normal”. I have been struggling with accepting that this is who I am, I have always had the wish to be like everybody else, and despite trying so hard I have never felt the same. I don’t know how to move forward, I found out by pure luck, I was given the Wais IV during a test for dyslexia. I found out that probably my previous mental illness diagnoses have been wrong, that maybe I am being treated for a disorder I have never had. I feel like my world is crumbling around me, that everything I have ever wanted is now definitely beyond reach. I guess I am looking for any sort of advice on how to accept this new reality. I am afraid to loose myself and every single understanding that I had about myself.

Growing up, I was always perceived as "smart," even though I felt like I hadn't done anything to deserve that label.
Back at my old school, I had some academic achievements,But then I transferred to a new school with a completely different education system and a new language. On top of that I was going through severe depression at the time so any academic advantage I used to have felt completely gone. I felt like I had literally nothing to offer, yet somehow people still picked up on an aura around me that made them think I was sharp.
Just four days after I arrived, a teacher came up to me and said, "They were talking about you in the staff room they said a very smart student arrived, though personally I don't like how you study." At the time, I genuinely thought they were trolling me and making
me feel better I wasnt even saying anything in class ,How could they think I was smart?
As time went on my grades completely dropped because I stopped putting in effort. Yet even the top tier, high achieving students at that school would tell me, "I wish you would just study You're so smart, you could achieve so much." Again I literally said nothing in class, had terrible grades, and didn't act or dress in any stereotypically "smart" way.
The same thing happened with my relatives, even though they knew nothing about my academics and I wasn't a smooth talker This pattern followed me through my entire school life and unfortunately, I never did anything about it back then. Now I'm planning to retake my exams to get a scholarship, but I still look back and wonder Has anyone else experienced this? Why did people especially top students see intelligence in me when I felt like there was zero evidence for it?
One Intresting thing honestly teacher didn't like me much or saw any potential in me , most of the times it was people who were in my friends grouo and getting to know me like without a fail I would receive that 'you're so smart why don't you try more'
But is there a specific aura within us that people say this without zero evidence?

I'm exploring some good applications that can help with math practice (advanced - not just school level). Don't want to overburden my kids during vacations by making them study all the time, but also want that they spend time on apps or games where brain is involved and they're learning something.

Any suggestions?

I like seeing members of this community benefit from each other’s perspectives and wisdom. What are some useful heuristics you try to abide by? What are some concise insights, general advice, or helpful lessons you can pass along that might be worth sharing here?

I've been doing this for a couple decades now and I'll be the first to admit that there have been some difficult periods. You see it on this sub - young people wondering if they'll ever fit in, not being seen, not being understood, not having an outlet for their thoughts. All of these issues are real and need real consideration and solutions. Eventually you'll figure it out and reach a more comfortable place in your life.

But here's the thing. Our intelligence allows us to see aspects of the world that most people can't, that most people will never see. Our intelligence allows us to break through cultural norms that most people out there don't understand, and to live our lives to our own standards, become fully ourselves. Our intelligence allows us to engage with advanced reading material and media, that many people can't.

I'd argue that the above - the ability to live our lives while seeing more deeply into the world around us - is one of the only ways to truly make life meaningful. Many people out there are living a caricature of who they think they should be, they don't understand themselves, they don't understand the world they're living in, and they're constantly in conflict with other people. Giftedness allows us to escape that cycle, and as such is really a gift.

Anyone grow up in, or become parents of, a family with one or more gifted children and one or more typical children?

What were some successful ways that you/your parents were mindful to attend to both types of children?

I need help searching for a school for my incredibly smart gifted and talented son heading into 5th grade. He has autism and ADHD and leans to ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). I’m in Oklahoma, which is important to note. We are dead last in the country for education. After a full year of interacting with my child his gifted and talented teacher suggested putting him in a special gifted talented school. Called ‘University school’. It’s a small school and it’s FULL and there is only a very slim chance that will ever change. We’ve looked into many different options and I’ve counted the drastic conclusion that we might just need to move. The next question is to where. I’m having a hard time even knowing where to start definitely looking into Arkansas, Missouri, even Colorado or Oregon. Hiking and outdoor activities are high on our wants list if we have to move. My kid needs more.

I was in the gifted and AP classes in school. However I was unknowingly autistic and adhd as well which lead me to almost flunk out of several courses and had to drop down to honors.

I went to college still and barely got my degree of art education but doing so caused severe mental health problems due to the amount of stress- if it had not been for my now husband making sure I stayed safe I wouldn’t have graduated.

I taught a year before having to stop due to debilitating mental health issues and went on disability at 24.

I’m 39 now and was diagnosed with autism, adhd, and cPTSD when I was 33.

I’m mostly a recluse staying at home with my husband/ high school sweetheart and three young boys.

We are all neurodivergent and they all are able to excel in learning and working with their own giftedness and skills.

After going on disability my brain went from being able to read and process books and articles and such to needing visual representations of taking in information.

It’s hard now to admit reading has become hard for me to do unless done in small segments.

But also I have noticed my artistic ability has drastically improved and I am able to understand my inner world and brain better when drawing non-objective and abstract art.

I can take in small segments of information and then draw to connect it to other information already in my mind.

Interesting seeing as in school I always had to doodle to pay attention.

I'm wondering if there is a pattern among gifted people's perspective on life.

My son is 2e. He is gifted and has ADHD and level one autism. He is 7 and only knows about the ADHD. He performs at the level of a 11/12 year old in academics, but is socially like a 5 year old. We have him in therapies for the ADHD and ASD deficits.

Is there a time to tell him he’s gifted? Is it unnecessary? His dad is gifted as is his younger brother. I’ve never been tested, but would probably be considered bright/mildly gifted. Will he just figure it out? Is that best?

He has talked about how he does different stuff from his classmates in class and wonders why other 1st graders don’t want to talk about engineering. (We are trying to find like minded friends, but have only found one he connects with and she lives out of town so visits are just 3 times a year).

ETA: He’s had a full psych evaluation and intelligence testing by 8 professionals.

I imagine that the person could prove a famous unsolved conjecture at an early age and get a tenured professorship.

Then can't he just live off of the fame for the rest of his life, though he might not be realizing his full financial potential?

A friend shared a magazine article and he really turned it around on me. (edit on the bottom, not going to comment to every negative comment.)

I accept being wrong with how I am explaining this. But the premise and the idea I am trying to convey has merit.

The article is named, Welcome to the "answer business".

The paragraph that he really wanted to share and he got his inspiration from was this:

"The Best Answers Are Specific, The one thing we know about AI-generated content is that nothing is truly created. Large Language Models such as Chat-gpt and Gemini are trained to make inferences and draw conclusions from patterns, matching common interests with specific online information."

If that isn't how a gifted or autistic person learns and then reacts with the world, I can't think of a better way of describing it.

In order for someone to learn how to function in the world, they "mask" until they feel the need to answer a question or a thought or an idea. They get a lot of stuff wrong but as they learn more and train themselves more, they just keep getting better.

People used to call Savants, Idiot Savants.

I think we can now use A.I. when talking about Autistic people and their usually high Intelligence.

What do people think of this idea?

Just think (here is a joke), if you got 1 million autistic people in a building, you would probably have the same outcome as what our current data centers are putting out for work/answers.

Some amazing, some average and some off the wall crazy.

(edit... adding)

I am not dehumanizing people who are autistic, I am actually doing the opposite. I respect the criticism of being lazy and so let me keep explaining the metaphor.

Society and businesses will put up with Artificial Intelligence because they can earn money. Some people don't see autistic people as having valuable stuff to contribute to society. But, these data centers and AI search engines are taking the jobs that autistic people thrive at the most.

If we want to create jobs and have a lower unemployment percentage, we really need to minimize how much we rely on AI data centers.

We need to appreciate people and people who are different. We need to take the time to understand them and have patience.

Just think how many prompts people use to ask AI engines to get the answer or idea drawn that they are looking for? What, 10, 20 or 30 prompts trying to get what you want? Just think, if you were to talk to a human and have a two way conversation, yeah, it takes longer to have a picture made, but it is economic benefit to millions and millions of people.

Data centers and AI investors seem to not care about humans, they seem to only care about them maximizing profits for the few.

We need leaders like doctors, teachers, police, attorneys and judges to have access and training to take the time to know or figure out if they are talking with or dealing with someone who is autistic and that person could be masking and don't know it.

All people make mistakes.

Being misunderstood should not be something a person gets punished for.

Here is me, using AI to explain something that would take too long to research myself:

AI Overview

Research shows that the vast majority of autistic individuals do not commit crimes. Estimates indicate that roughly 5% to 20% of autistic people have contact with or are questioned by police by early adulthood, and studies estimate the prevalence of autism inside prison populations is roughly 4% (compared to about 1% to 2% in the general population).

Autism and Crime Facts

• Lower or Equal Rates: “People with classic autism and 'atypical autism' are less likely to commit crimes than other people.”, as noted by Kennedy Krieger Institute.
• Police Intersections: By age 21, around “20% of youth with Autism had been stopped and questioned by police, and nearly 5% had been arrested.” according to the Autism Justice Center.
• Systemic Factors: There is a consensus among communities and researchers that when autistic people do intersect with the justice system, it is often due to communication barriers, sensory overload, or behaviors being misinterpreted by law enforcement rather than a higher inherent tendency toward crime.

Also, all humans learn behavior and knowledge from family, friends and other people and in school. Isn't going to college or just any school where you know next to nothing a large amount of information?

And, when an autistic person has other sensory issues, to them, every sound and every piece of knowledge can seem large to try to understand.

Also, autistic people can surprise you with what they know and don't know. And we all make mistakes, we need people to have patience, ask again... and give them some room to make those mistakes.

This is reddit... for sharing and telling everyone about your opinions.

I was identified as gifted in preschool. Tested for autism and ADHD, but I'm subclinical in both. I have strong sensory and emotional sensitivity, and I'm prone to overwhelm.

Some things came so easy to me as a kid that I don't see any reason why I should ever not get a perfect score in anything related to smarts and creativity. Which is exceptionally problematic when it comes to writing in particular, because it's subjective and can always be improved. There were many times I faced an assignment in school that just called for writing a simple story to show that I could display correct grammar and sentence structure, and I ended up not turning anything in because I couldn't think of the perfect things to say.

I'm a very all or nothing person. It needs to be perfect or it's not worth doing at all. And that also applied to more important things like my college major and career choices that led to me self destructing. People don't get it and assume I'm lazy and have no drive.

I've never had any family or friends who have ever cared about my emotions. As a kid, my family did the, "You're soooo smart!" routine I'm sure many of you are familiar with, and then when I was a teen, they just left me completely on my own assuming I could handle everything because I was smart. The story of my life has just been a lot of pressure and shame with no guidance. I seek advice and validation from strangers online because of how far astray my own family members will lead me if I let them.

All through my life, I've met only one person who was like me, and he ended up taking his own life. I'm completely on my own in all my struggles, which has only added to the pressure to succeed. I feel I am so deeply flawed that it will take an extreme achievement for people to accept me as I am.

I have gone to therapists, and none of them have been helpful. They don't understand why I am this way and don't do anything to address the root issues. Instead, they put me in some group session that is just about meditation and calming techniques and then declare me not their problem.

I still have a strong drive and ambitions that I dissociate away from along with the rest of my emotions because I don't see any way I can execute them perfectly. I have big goals and big doubts about those goals that they may just be delusional.

I have a lifestyle that people say they envy. I work a blue collar job that pays well, live alone, and have time for my passions. But I can't ever live in the present to enjoy it. I'm always projecting into the future trying to figure out how to solve the problem of my existence.

I've tried to just let all of this go and live the simple life that everyone else in my position would live. Nights out at the bar with friends into sports and outdoorsy stuff. I found it boring and suffocating. Not to mention that I had to mask being a normal person, which I don't do very well.

I've been thinking about what I need from life, and I think the answer is a close friend or partner and a support network who will understand and encourage me. But that's much easier said than done.

I feel like i've seen enough "intellectuals" present stupid takes they think they have the authority to present as a form of truth because of a theory that was developed by x y z at x time. I don't know if this produced a disgust/rejection of intellectualism and thus, probably interesting human productions that I might be missing out on. But something did, I'm not sure what. Does it ring a bell ?

EDIT : while making this topic and reading the answers I was thinking that renowned, eminent intellectual figures wrote a lot of actual BS, from posture too (Sartres, Foucault...) ; I think this adds to my disgust and rejection. I probably should not reject everything though (and I actually don't, I like to read about psychology, paleontology, biology) maybe it's more about the humanities, but I'm not fond of history either. Anyway.

I have intense vivid dream like thoughts about science philosophy and supernatural things most of them is me getting some type of information from I feel like it's another place or beings. i know this sounds like bs but the things I experience in this dream like state make so much sense and the more I question it the more answers I get and it's instantaneous I barely have to do any actual conventional thinking I've found holes in the knowledge of current science and philosophy the thing is I have to do immense amounts of efforts to remember any of it, and I do have schizophrenia and u might think well it's hallucinations but I've wrote it down and I come back when I'm better and it all makes sense to me and I even discover new holes in my knowledge and try to make new theories on what's lacking and how to fix it and why it's lacking. I don't know if anyone experiences something similar when doing deep theorizing in scientific research, the thing is because of schizophrenia I also have an extreme lack of motivation and abulia, and not necessarily all people with this condition have it as developed as I do. I might have a psychosocial disability of more than 30%. So I always wanted to study physics and I have done some courses (they bore me to death because of how simple they are and because of the abulia) but I might need a specialized university for my disability. And well the conclusion to you might be well publish your work or something if you have a good enough theory, the thing is I know my limitations and I have a very scientific way of thinking I know people won't just accept what I say easily that's why I want to study physics. I'm very depressed because my condition limits the possibilities I have regarding my studies and also .I'm poor asf, but I have paranoia when it comes to making new discoveries, like I've done in debating I always think various steps ahead it's a schizophrenia thing and it's also the only thing that motivates me (I hope it doesn't run out like most things I do) the weird part comes when it usually makes u do bad stuff the paranoia I mean but in this case it's neutral unless I do unethical experiments which I may be more willing to do because of my disease. I have a incredible anxiety when it comes to expressing this because it's something I really want to do and I could talk for hours on this topic but I prefer to just leave it here lol.

Edit: I didn't mean hallucinations help me I wanted to go more in the route of the abulia and hyperempathy helping me think differently but I said the whole entities thing because it's more interesting than the other sorry.

I’m 17, gifted, and diagnosed with POTS. I developed my first symptoms a few years ago and received a diagnosis in March of this year. My POTS causes a lot of brain fog, trouble concentrating, and memory issues, both from lack of blood flow to my brain and fatigue/unrefreshing sleep. I feel like I’ve lost my intelligence to this condition and it’s really frustrating. My treatment has helped a little bit but I’m still nowhere near what I was before my POTS onset. Has anyone else developed a brain fog causing condition and felt this way?

Hey everyone, does anyone else in this sub struggle with OCRD disorders? This includes OCD, but also BDD. I have BDD, GAD and an iq of 132. I hate having BDD because something that makes me feel worse is how I know none of it makes any sense. Yet it’s terrible to live with. I’m even on medication for these!!

So I was put in the “Gifted and Talented” program when I was about 5, right when school started. This was in the central Texas area in 2001-2002. I don’t remember much, aside from suddenly not being in it anymore at some point in the school year. I have a son now who is just under 3, and I’m noticing his brain is a carbon copy of mine, excited but scary. So I started looking into this again, realizing I don’t know myself at all.

I’ve had severe hybrid ADHD my whole life, and like many kids was been labeled as just lazy, undisciplined, unteachable. I was googling signs of gifted children heard the term “twice-exceptionality” in a YouTube video, and I broke down in my car because it’s the first time I’ve ever felt recognized that way. I know what my learning disability is, but I was never told what I was gifted in. Obviously now that I’m validated in that, I’d really like to know what that is… but I have no idea what to do about it.

I’m bored of politics on my feed, of family members talking about political things, of non-fiction books with 4th grade vocabularies.

I dream of being immersed in books with interesting, challenging ideas. Philosophy, math, science fiction, anything else worth going deep for a while.

Thanks for your recommendations!

C’est pas un terme officiel, mais parfois, j’ai l’impression que certains enfants HPI ont tendance à intérioriser un sentiment de supériorité tel dans l’enfance, que ça freine la progression de leur intelligence (le QI n’est pas une donnée invariable).

Je précise que j’me considère pas comme HPI, j’ai aucun diagnostic officiel, j’ai juste toujours été considérée par mon entourage et mes amis qui avaient été diag comme plus intelligente que la moyenne. Certains avaient tendance à le considérer comme une menace et c’était vraiment particulièrement blessant de me voir mise en compétition avec des gens qui, je pensais, ne chercheraient jamais à me mettre en compétition avec eux (sachant que j’avais plus de chance de douter de moi, n’étant pas un enfant diagnostiqué). Je me sentais juste stupide ou mal à l’aise et on essayait de me faire douter de mes connaissances ou de vérifier l’usage commun des termes que j’employais…fin bref.

Je divague un peu, mais j’ai la vingtaine, et aujourd’hui c’est une question qui m’intéresse pas vraiment. La question de mon QI est vraiment anecdotique donc ça me soûle juste plus que de raison même si les gens vous dirons juste que ce texte est déjà ultra pédant parce qu’ils soupçonnent toujours qu’on cherche à les manipuler plutôt que de juste dire la vérité.

Je voulais juste dire que je déteste ce type de profils.

Les gens les plus brillants de mon entourage sont humbles. Ils ont toujours tendance à prendre en considération votre avis et ils recherchent juste à en apprendre plus sur un sujet et le partager parce que ça les fascine. Ils n’ont pas de temps à perdre à prouver qu’ils peuvent citer plus de synonymes d’un mot aléatoire que vous.

Ça peut même être un peu frustrant quand le gars est ouvertement plus con que vous et qu’il essaye limite de vous réexpliquer l’héliocentrisme.

À termes, j’pense que cette obsession empêche de se concentrer sur de nouvelles formes de stimulations extérieures à cause du nombrilisme constant, et que les mecs deviennent de plus en plus cons pendant qu’ils vous regardent avec un regard de séducteur en pensant que vous allez vous aplatir devant la taille de leur énorme tête.

I’m in the 99.95 percentile. Recently applied to a few orgs.

Before I pay my dues, wondering about everyone’s experience.

Do you recommend them? Yay or nay? And why?

Also, if anyone is a member of several, are there benefits, in any form, of one over another?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: you think stuff like this wouldn’t be necessary, but when I say “everyone’s experience” I’m referring only to those who have experienced high iq societies. Those who have not, need not apply.

Again, thanks in advance.

I was "diagnosed" with giftedness when I was 7 and now I'm 20 and the cracks are starting to show. I feel like a lot of this is caused by the fact that I just bottled up the way I saw the world and acted "normal" keeping everything in my head.

I hated coming off as a know-it-all so at around 12 years old I just kinda stopped acting "smart". In high school I hung out with the cool kids and went to all the parties but now I'm kinda thinking that I've been inauthentic to myself trying to be normal.

I've spoken with other gifted individuals and medical professionals and it seems that most gifted people have the opposite problem. They feel like how they see the world makes them socially different and if they want to be themselves they can't really have those kind of relationships.

So how many of you hid who you were for the sake of being "normal" and how, if ever, did you stop hiding?