A Critical-Analytical Review on Misdiagnosis of Gifted and Talented Students

Background and Present study aimed to criticize and analyze the misdiagnosis of gifted and talented students, and provide necessary guidelines for this problem. Current research was a descriptive and exploratory study. For this purpose, scientific databases were searched using research-related keywords. Among the found related literature and regardless of their publication date, 24 academic accredited papers on differential diagnosis and misdiagnosis of gifted and talented students were selected for further analysis, review, comparison, interpretation, and conclusion. Results showed not only do many of gifted and talented students go unrecognized, but also often get diagnoses indicating pathology. The most common misdiagnoses include learning disabilities, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Asperger syndrome, oppositional defiant disorder, depression and other mood disorders, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Therefore, in order to avoid these misdiagnoses, it is essential for experts, teachers, coaches, and parents to have a sufficient understanding of giftedness and talentedness. In this paper, after presenting a short introduction, the effective factors in misdiagnosis of gifted and talented students are discussed. Then, the most common wrong diagnoses are listed, and finally, the necessary conclusions are drawn. According to our findings, the lives of the future leaders are at risk. In order to avoid this problem, the identification and diagnosis of gifted and talented students should be done using accurate and accredited diagnosis methods.