Just wondering if my 6 yr old is gifted. He started 1st grade with a DRA reading level of 24,witch a level of 4 is expected, really good in math doing double digit addition, he told me that 45 45=90 when I asked how he figured out he answered "well 40 40=80 and 5 5=10 so 80 10=90 in his head.However having some behavior problems in school already spoke to school psychologist and he said it "he might have a little bit of ADHD" I'm so confused and don't know what to do? Help!Please any advice!

Congratulations! You do seem to have a gifted child. And it's quite possible that he also has ADD/ADHD. Many of the children I taught over the years who were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD were extremely intelligent. And their ability to see all of the options at once, made it a very exciting experience to work with them.

It's nothing to worry over, but it is something that you need to clarify and understand. First, ADD/ADHD is not in itself a learning disability or a mental illness. It's a brain chemistry issue that allows the child (or adult) to focus on everything at once, which most people don't understand. Attention Deficit doesn't mean they can't pay attention; it means they can't sort out what needs attention and what doesn't. They pay attention to everything equally, which makes them appear very distractable, but also allows them to see connections and patterns that most of us miss. Most children with ADD/ADHD do well on small doses of stimulants, which also seems odd, but again, it's a brain issue. What makes the rest of us buzz around and lose focus has the opposite effect on them. The main characteristics of a person with ADD are that 1) they appear distractable, 2) they tend to move around more than average, and 3) they do not see the connection between their behavior and the reactions of the people around them. There are others, but those three are almost always seen together.

Take your son for a full workup as soon as possible so that you can figure out how best to handle him in school and at home. You don't actually have a diagnosis, and you need a definitive answer before you can move forward. If he does indeed have both gifted intelligence and ADD/ADHD, he could become very bored very quickly, and there's an intervention plan that your specialist can help you work on to keep his focus where it needs to be and avoid behavioral issues that can arise from boredom and the inability of the average person (teachers in particular) to understand how best to approach his education.

The educational negative part of ADD/ADHD is that it can cause a sort of "static" in the child's brain while he's learning. Since he takes in too much information at once, he can experience something like crossed wires that prevent him from learning the things he truly needs to know. When that happens, he appears later to be learning disabled as he will show evidence of gaps in his knowledge. While the teacher was explaining nouns, for instance, he was focused on that but also on something like the sounds coming from the construction crew outside the window and the number of times the teacher used the word "like" and the bird that flew past and the questions on the next page in the book. Later, the rest of the class knows about nouns, but he doesn't remember hearing about them... for good reason.

Again, you only have a guess by the school psychologist. Many times, pros and semi-pros will pronounce a child "ADHD" just because he's brighter or more animated than his classmates. Without a definite diagnosis, you can't really be sure.

First while I upset many people with this, ADHD is a throw any kid into it, that has any issues that are often caused by diet or just poor parenting by allowing bad behavior at home.

Sometimes kids who are smarter than other kids or quicker than others get bored in normal school and as such, they appear not to listen, or let their minds wonder. The other issue, some may be far advanced in math or science, but lack skills in other areas, making moving them ahead in schools hard.

You can look into advanced testing to find their level and perhaps consider a private school where they can be taught to their abilitity

I remember when I was about his age maybe a year younger doing the same thing. I would do math like you described he did in my head easily also. I started reading at age 4 which was preschool. If he does have ADHD it isn't necessarily that he can do that kind of work at a young age easily that he may have it. I don't have ADHD. He could but not necessarily because of that. It just means he is a smart boy!