Hi Renie and other parents --
Just wanted to say thank you for your posts -- really informative for me! I'm new to this forum, and actually just posted a question regarding my son, who is four and also seems to be developing something like ODD (I posted a new topic before I saw this thread).
I especially appreciated Sciencemama's comment:
"I think, with the asynchronous behavior of gifted children, there's a lag in both cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation skills. The more highly gifted the child, the more emotionally intense the child tends to be (I don't have facts, just speaking from my own observations.
It can LOOK like ODD, but it is really not at all. It's simply not being able to identify and cope with INTENSE feelings of frustration."
This insight helps me so much -- my son is having difficulty transitioning back into school, dealing with some authority figures (but not all of them) and having anxiety and anger associated with school in particular. Just reading about similiar situations from other parents is such a relief!
My son hasn't officially been labelled as gifted, but his scores in verbal tests have been very high, and he doesn't fit into the Asperger's profile because of the social skills he does have. But most of his new issues are surrounding social skills with groups of peers. Very confusing for my husband and I, since the kid is extremely extroverted in most social situations.
Anyway, I plan to look into "The Nurtured Heart" book as a resource. Here in Colorado everyone is very big on the Love & Logic approach, which I like in theory, but with a child who is good at haggling over given choices, it doesn't always work!
