What I learned (I put this in another thread too) about social development is that "optimal" social development occurs through interaction from intellectual peers. It's best if those peers are also closer in age, but this can be tricky if your child is a few standard deviations from the norm. You have to accept that you have to work alot harder to find them.
That doesn't mean that the child can't or shouldn't get along with and navigate social situations with any kid their age, it just means that you, as the parent, need to put everything in the appropriate framework to help understand and support the child.
I've found it helps to have this appropriate expectation that it will be more difficult and there might not be "bonding", but as long as your child is being polite and following the social rules as best they can, that's appropriate. Just like an adult is going to have deeper connections or friendships etc. with people who have more in common with them, share more similar world views etc., where with others, like casual neighbors and other parents in groups, the dynamic can be polite (hopefully!) but the expectation is that it will be more superficial. I think it helps the child's self-esteem if they can learn to understand this, too, because they certainly know they are different.
Building up their confidence will hopefully also help them deal with being bullied if that occurs (it seems hard to escape). Unfortunately some people don't outgrow bullying, so they take it into the workplace or as that one science fair thread indicates, it comes out through pushing their kids further ahead than others.
