I agree with what's been said about young children getting frustrated that their products don't match adults' (and btw, it's not only gifties who display this kind of perfectionism, although perhaps gifties may tend to get it worse) but I think the other major source of perfectionism is lack of challenge. I think I turned into a perfectionist around the age of 12, in self-defence, because aiming for perfection was the only means available to me of getting any kind of challenge. At any rate I'm better now :-) I would not suspect that of being the reason for perfectionism in preschoolers because the general environment is what provides challenges at that age, but if someone has an older child stuck in a bad school situation, I'd suggest suspecting that.
