This study does not support this concern. Indeed, despite the fact that a large percentage of the children recruited for high creative ability showed significant elevations on ratings of ADHD symptoms, none of them met full criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD, showing that these symptoms are not proving to be problematic in their environments, and are not raising concerns for parents or teachers. Further, none of them entered the study with a diagnosis of ADHD suggesting that the symptoms were not significant enough to warrant referral. Thus, concerns of misdiagnosis appear unwarranted. The assumption
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behind the concern about misdiagnosis appears to be that the underlying mechanisms leading to these behaviors are different and thus creative children would not benefit from the standard treatment offered to children with ADHD (Cramond, 1994b). The results of this study suggest that the underlying mechanisms may indeed be the same and that these creative children do have difficulties on some of the same tasks as ADHD children, although they appear less severe. Therefore, one cannot conclude that these children would not benefit from similar treatment approaches. Instead, it may be that the creative children displaying ADHD symptoms have a vulnerability that, to date, has not been stressed. Further, it may be that these children’s environment is more suited to their needs and enables them to benefit from their inattention and develop their creativity. Only further investigations of treatment approaches for creative children impaired by ADHD
symptoms would clarify the best practice parameters for these children.
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