Overexcitabilities and ADHD in gifted adolescents in Jordan -

Abstract

Gifted students are sometimes extremely energetic, have highly sensitive and emotional temperament and lifelike imaginations (Silverman 1993). Some students can display behavioral characteristics similar to those exhibited by children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), leading to possible misdiagnosis (Rinn and Reynolds, 2012). When a gifted individual is assessed for ADHD, his or her tendency to be overly excited should also be considered. It is difficult to discriminate a gifted child’s Overexcitability (OE) from ADHD symptoms (Kyuman Chae, Kim and Noh, 2003). The aim of the current study is two-fold. First, it is to shed light on the misdiagnosis of ADHD with OE in gifted students. It examined the relationship between characteristics of OEs and symptoms of ADHD among gifted adolescents in Jordan. Second, the study investigated teachers’ ability to identify whether an adolescent exhibits ADHD or OE symptoms using vignettes that were given to the teachers. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) What knowledge do teachers in Jordan have about ADHD and overexcitability symptoms? (b) What is the relationship between characteristics of overexcitabilities and ADHD among gifted Jordanian adolescent students? (c) How does the gender of gifted students affect the teachers’ perceptions of ADHD and-or overexcitability? (d) What are the gender differences in levels of OE in gifted adolescents in Jordan? The participants included 265 gifted adolescent students and 46 teachers from the Jubilee Institute in Jordan. The study implemented a mixed-method approach; adolescents received a Jordanian version of the Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two (OEQ-II) in order to measure the five forms of OE: psychomotor, sensual, imaginational, intellectual and emotional (Bouchet and Falk, 2001; Falk, Lind, Miller, Piechowski and Silverman, 1999). Conners’ ADHD- DSM-V Scales-Adolescent scale was also used to measure symptoms of ADHD in adolescents. F