“At least you didn’t do worse than chance.”
I had to laugh. My dad had unloaded a huge, unwanted box of old school papers on me. While most went into the recycling, I found a few gems. Among them, a pattern-recognition exercise where I scored an overall 25% on a four-part multiple choice.
As my husband pointed out, at least I didn’t get below 25%, or I would’ve done worse than blind chance.
What does this have to do with ADHD?
Well, I have a hunch: I can figure out which image doesn’t belong. I think I could’ve done it in second grade, too. But it takes me a while. I’m not a natural visual thinker. The oddball image doesn’t jump out at me. In other words, I have to keep my eyes (and brain) on the pictures long enough to figure it out.
And look at this page of math problems. My accuracy rate was okay, but I left huge chunks blank at the end.
Looking back at my elementary school papers and report cards, I see a trail of ADHD clues.
I see a smart kid who made a lot of silly mistakes on assignments. Who forgot to do homework. Whose attention span was too short to figure out simple pattern recognition exercises. Who got distracted and ran out of time before finishing an assignment. This, on top of the report cards detailing my lack of impulse control or (related, for sure) social skills.
And yet, because I was smart — my IQ and advanced reading skills landed me in the gifted program — and a girl, no one suspected ADHD. This was, and remains, common. If ADHD runs in your family and you have introverted, sensitive, academically gifted children, it’s something to watch for.
Grown-ups with late-diagnosis ADHD: do you ever look back at all the clues and wonder how no one knew?
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