Thank you so much for your insights. My biggest concerns for my son are social. He's been identified by the district as gifted, and also has a 504 to address some ADHD issues. He was obviously different as a little guy and the suspected autism, so we did a lot of testing at that point (they wondered it the computer obsession was a fixation). In the end, autism was ruled out, but ADHD was obvious. I feel like his academic situation is very good because of the measures that were taken, but of course, we would always love for him to have any enrichment opportunities that could be available.
The interest in computers excludes everything else though. He doesn't play sports, watch TV, or even play video games. Every free moment is computers. You can't even force him to do something else. It makes him miserable. Because of this, he has a hard time with friends. Other kids call him weird. He's not prepared to discuss their interests, and they are not prepared to discuss his.
I think as he gets a little older, that may change to some degree as other kids start getting into the nuts and bolts of technology, but he's always going to be different. It is noteworthy that this bothers us more than it bothers him. He mentions not seeing eye to eye with other kids, but isn't losing sleep over it.
