I appreciate hearing everyone's responses. It sounds like I'm not the only one who hadn't heard this before. I have a nephew who is autistic, and his mother says that many autistic kids go through puberty quite early. Is it possible that there are enough kids with Aspie in the higher IQ range that it would skew things---that the early puberty might be related to ASD and not to giftedness? (Of course, ASD is more common in boys, right? So maybe that theory is already out the window.)