A Fine Line

Turkey is a complex guy.  I've blogged before about his Asperger's diagnosis, his anxiety diagnosis and his ADHD diagnosis.  But the other side of the coin is his intelligence.  His IQ is in the 99.6% and his intelligence level is considered "far superior".

Often times gifted kids are afflicted with Dabrowski's Overexcitabilites (or Supersensativies), called DOE in this blog.  There is a fine line, a very fine line; between many of these characteristics and other "development disabilities" such as ADHD.

There are 5 areas of DOE, psychomotor, sensual, emotional, intellectual and imagination.  Sometimes when Turkey is being, well Turkey, I often wonder if I am watching a DOE or if it really is ADHD.  This is partly why, we have decided to medically treat his anxiety and see what falls into place from there.

From About.com:

Psychomotor

The primary sign of this intensity is a surplus of energy. Children with a dominant psychomotor overexcitability are often misdiagnosed with ADHD since characteristics are similar.

·         Rapid speech 

·         Impulsive behavior

·         Competitiveness

·         Compulsive talking

·         Compulsive organizing

·         Nervous habits and tics

·         Preference for fast action and sports

·         Physical expression of emotions

·         Sleeplessness

Turkey "suffers" from 7 out of these 9 characteristics.  He does NOT have a preference for fast action sports (although that may be partly blamed on his flat feet, but he does love wrestling with Husband) and he often lacks physical expression for his emotions (but that's the Asperger's).  The compulsive organizing is new, and it's only in respect to his time.   He is into listing his time and what to do, and when to do it.  It makes you wonder... ADHD or DOE.  Hhhmmmm.

More about the other DOE to come.