2 ways a gifted child may have a learning disability

Can a gifted child have a hidden learning disability? Can a learning-disabled child have a hidden giftedness?

Absolutely! Let me tell you about my 5th son. He learned to read by phonics before kindergarten. He always did well in elementary school and showed signs of giftedness. Then in intermediate school (6th & 7th grade) he started struggling. His grades were slipping, he was having behavior problems, getting into trouble, etc. 

We were pulling our hair out. We didn't know what to do. Next he went to middle school (8th & 9th) grades, and things got much worse. We noticed that he was very depressed. Was he on drugs?

About this same time, his younger brother had been diagnosed with childhood bipolar disorder. So I decided to take this son to the same diagnosing clinic and get a professional work-up. Dr. Gray wasn't available, so Dr. Lin took the case. It turned out that my son was ADHD and depressed (sounds bipolar to me, but she said no). 

Dr. Lin said that he was so gifted that it masked his problem in elementary school, but that when he reached the older grades, he couldn't hold it all together on memory and logic any more.

Changing classes and teachers 6 or 7 times a day uncovered the disorganization in his brain. So we got him the help he needed, and his grades came up, culminating in his high school graduation. I wouldn't be surprised if letting him watch too much TV or play too many video games, while I was working when he was little, contributed to his problem. 

He may have a genetic predisposition for these things, but too much media didn't help. As a single mom, I was on survival mode, worked full-time, went to college full-time, studied, took care of the house and shopping, etc. My son changed day-cares too much at that time, also.

The only thing I can say in my defense is that I didn't know. I wish that I knew what I know now, about the affects of noise on the toddler’s brain, when I was younger. I shouldn't have taken the easy road, but my stress level was really high. I also felt that, while I had to work, he was safer watching TV or playing video games than being with questionable friends or wandering outside.

Also, back then I didn't know that changing day-cares too much can cause bonding-attachment disorder in children. I realized that my son had signs of this when he was a preschooler, so I did whatever I could to help him bond with me – held him more, made him look me in the eye while speaking, spent more time with him. 

Divorce is hard on everyone, especially the children. My 5th son was the youngest at the time and was affected the most. He lost both parents; dad to divorce, and mom to work and school.

But I can also say that taking the time to teach him to read before kindergarten, with my picture-letters, solved two problems. I gave him the tools and capacity to learn (and well) despite his hidden ADHD, and I mended his bonding-attachment disorder at the same time with the one-on-one attention. 

In his early teenage years we discovered his hidden ADHD disability and diminished its symptoms, so he could function in a secondary school setting. We also addressed his depression, partly genetic but exacerbated by his struggles in school. He has grown up to be a wonderful, caring young man!

Some children who appear to be gifted in certain areas, such as math, mechanics, cooking, music, etc., may be held back by problems in reading and writing. Some children who are “diagnosed” with learning disabilities may have gifted abilities in other areas, even being savants. Others may be held back by depression or other brain-chemistry issues. 

There is hope. Parents can do things at home to prepare (or repair) their child’s brain for normal, signal processing.

~ Early reading the right way
~ Less sound and visual “noise”
~ Dr. Merzenich’s group
~ Dr. Doman’s institute

(More about this in Chapter 7 of "It's Not Rocket Surgery!" Also, see visual-spatial learners in Chapter 8.)

Without phonics, the idea of anagrams and other word puzzles would be extremely difficult for the sight-reader/dyslexic with little precision in letter-sounds and sequences. Here are a few examples of anagrams from http://www.baconbabble.com/index.php/2009/12/03/48-amazing-anagrams/ plus some of mine. The idea of these anagrams is to scramble the word into something that describes the original word, using all the same letters.

Note: some of the anagrams on the website are not appropriate. I do not support the ribald ones. However, these below are genius!

Mother-in-law __________________________Woman Hitler
Debit card______________________________Bad credit
Slot machines___________________________Cash lost in ‘em
School master___________________________The classroom
Eleven plus two_________________________Twelve plus one
Dormitory_______________________________Dirty room
Punishment______________________________Nine thumps
The Morse code__________________________Here come dots
Snooze alarms___________________________Alas! No more Zs
A decimal point_________________________I’m a dot in place
Astronomer______________________________Moon starer
The eyes________________________________They see
The public art galleries________________Large picture halls, I bet
Election results________________________Lies – let’s recount
The Hurricanes__________________________These churn air
Presbyterian____________________________Best in prayer
Desperation_____________________________A rope ends it
Animosity_______________________________Is no amity
The earthquakes_________________________That queer shake
Semolina________________________________Is No Meal
Contradiction___________________________Accord not in it

-Anagrams in Famous Names- (try your own name)

Elvis___________________________________Lives
Elvis Aaron Presley_____________________Seen alive? Sorry, pal!
Madonna Louise Ciccone__________________One cool dance musician
Clint Eastwood__________________________Old West action
William Shakespeare_____________________I’ll make a wise phrase
Marilyn Manson__________________________Manly man? No sir!
A Homer Simpson_________________________Mr. Homo Sapiens
Giovanni Pergolesi______________________I love opera singing!
George Bush_____________________________He bugs Gore
Osama bin Laden_________________________A bad man, no lies
Saddam Hussein__________________________UN’s said he’s mad
Adolf Hitler____________________________Do real filth
Alec Guinness___________________________Genuine Class
Princess Diana__________________________Ascend in Paris (freaky, right?)
Shannah B Godfrey_______________________Fans go by her hand (writings)

This one's truly amazing:
"To be or not to be: that is the question, whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." ~ William Shakespeare

And the Anagram:
"In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten."

And another long one:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." ~ Neil Armstrong

The Anagram:
"Thin man ran; makes a large stride, left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!"

With early reading the right way, no one has to miss the joy of anagrams!

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