Abstract

Through recognizing the different levels and kinds of giftedness, this book provides an insight into the challenges and benefits specific to gifted children with attention difficulties. Explaining why certain children are gifted and how giftedness is manifested, each chapter on a specific topic addresses the relevance for children with AD/HD and Asperger Syndrome. Lovecky guides parents and professionals through methods of diagnosis and advises on how best to nurture individual needs, positive behavior and relationships at home and at school.

Lovecky explores concepts such as asynchrony and the effects of such `uneven' development on children, using case studies to illustrate emotional, intellectual, creative and social development. She also highlights the inadequate measures currently in place to assist parents and teachers and goes on to clearly define what is required to understand and help these children so that their needs can be met more positively in the future. Different Minds, with its wealth of practical and background information, is essential reading for all those who live or work with gifted children with attention difficulties.

Different Minds is an invaluable resource for both professionals and parents. Gifted teens and adults with AS or ADHD will also benefit from reading this book. It is clearly a labor of love, and we are all lucky to have the resource available.
The Journal of AEGUS
Different Minds is a book that is highly useful for parents and professionals alike. Parents will appreciate Dr. Lovecky's detailed discussions of the challenges of gifted children with 'different minds', her clear writing style, and the wealth of useful information and practical resources she provides. Professional will find a thoughtful discussion of the intersection of AD/HD, Asperger's Syndrome and non verbal learning disabilities in gifted children, supported by a thorough review of current research. Different Minds is a book that belongs in the library of every professional who works with children with AD/HD.
Attention
The book is an excellent resource for those working with non-average learners. In particular it draws together the different but overlapping strands of these specific diagnoses, and strives to clarify the underlying academic strengths as well as the educational needs of the children. It would be particularly relevant to those working in settings where the learners' abilities and needs are broad ranging, or difficult to define.
Good Autism Practice
Different Minds, Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome and Other Learning Deficits is an excellent and highly fascinating book, which covers a very special field in child neuro-psychology and developmental paediatrics. The book has a theme that has not, to my knowledge, been much discussed in the literature. Dr Lovecky gives, from her vast experience in clinical child psychology and from her special interets in gifted children, many instructive examples from actual children in her practice and discusses their cognitive styles, strengths and difficulties. Also the discussion about the relation between NVLD and Asperger syndrome is very useful. The reference list is comprehensive and includes other important literature in the field. There is also a list of useful resource centers for parents, teachers and professionals. I will strongly recommend this book to all these groups. This book will give new insights that will considerably contribute to our understanding of children with different minds.
European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The book is the product of years of observing, assessing, and counseling gifted children in her practice at the Gifted Resource Center of New England. It resulted from the frustration of parents who needed help understanding their children – the giftedness, the uneven development, and the learning difficulties. In response, Lovecky produced a book that “discusses not only the disorders, but also the issue of giftedness and how being gifted amplifies problems or ameliorates then”.

Parents, teachers and mental health professionals will find clear explanations and useful strategies and recommendations in the book's 500 plus pages... The first three chapters give readers an excellent foundation in giftedness, attention deficit disorder, and Asperger Syndrome. Unlike many authors, Lovecky explores the strengths of gifted kids with these disorders as well as their weaknesses. She also looks at other disorders and learning deficits that might co-exist in these children... Different Minds, a book dense with information, makes the reader work; but it's well worth the effort. Whether you use the book as a reference to read it from cover to cover, you will come away with well researched fact to help you better understand gifted children with attention and learning deficits and many practical strategies for nurturing and teaching them'.

2e: Twice Exceptional Newsletter
In addition to case studies and research findings, Different Minds offers practical strategies and ways in which young people can be supported, both to develop their intellectual abilities and to help them feel accepted in society... This is an absorbing read crammed with observation and detail. Did you know, for instance, that difficulties with social interaction increase in line with IQ? Children with higher IQ's (180-plus) find their age peers “a mystery, because they're so different in interests, speed of learning, ability to understand complex material and desire to learn.”... Different minds is a valuable addition to the information already available in this field.
Children Now
This is a well-structured book. There are nine chapters; the first gives an overview of gifted children and theories of giftedness. The next two chaoters provide a general description off AD/HD and Asperger before going on to give detailed information on gifted children with these conditions. The following chapters look at cognitive aspects and learning styles, creativity, emotional intelligence, social cognition and moral development. The final chapters discuss issues around assessment and highlight the resources available. The author also includes useful appendices on diagnostic criteria.
Community Practitioner
The text is written in an easily read style with many case studies sprinkled throughout to make this complex subject matte more personal. The book doesn't offer false hopes or instant cures, but neither is it morose reading. One suggestion made seemed to be particularly pertinent - that it is very important for teachers and parents to allow harmless idiosyncrasies. After all, don't we all have these?
Gifted and Talented Magazine
Deirdre V. Lovecky PhD is a clinical child psychologist at the Gifted Resource Center of New England, specializing in the needs of gifted children, adolescents and their families. She is a qualified psychotherapist and consultant, speaks at conferences and presents workshops for parents and teachers. She has had many articles published in academic journals and regularly writes on the topic of giftedness.