To some extent that sounds like pathologizing a natural behavior of the gifted.
My DS3 has never inspired even a moment of worry in me that he has an ASD (which is another check in the column of "something is up with DD") but he is currently OBSESSED with deep-sea life. His interest is more all-consuming than DD's have ever been. But really--that kid is not not not ASD. He's just not. He's pretty damn smart, though! So...why is the behavior okay when the child doesn't have other flags and not okay if the child does? How sure are we, really, that these behaviors are part of the problem?
When DS went to preschool and kindy and tried to make conversational contact with other children on the basis of very weird scientific interests of his, it became a serious social problem for him.
Some socially and intellectually gifted kids I know are better at adapting-- they can turn on the unusual topics sometimes, and they show a good bit of all-around smartness and engagement with the world, but they can turn the unusual topics off when they're among kids who aren't interested, and they know the difference. What DS lacks is that flexibility, and it's a real hindrance. As far as I can tell, that's a big part of the AS in his case, and distinguishes him from non-AS gifted kids.
Some of DS's intellectual interests at various points have been anxiety-driven, as when he learned everything about clouds and weather because he was afraid of storms. In that case it's control-driven, not an abstract interest. But some of them truly are abstract interests, gifted stuff, carried to an extreme degree and less able to regulate or shut off appropriately.
DeeDee
Edited to add: We do not discourage all the special interests as mere "symptoms" (indeed they are pretty amazing and valid interests), but we do encourage "right time and place" for different topics... we do not talk about higher math in Sunday School...
