Hi kd
I recently had my DS 4 tested because of very similar reasons to yours. He was flipping out a lot, tantrums with hands over his ears. The child care centre he went to 2 days a week suggested perhaps autism. We thought a very bored gifted child with possibly aspergers or adhd. He can't sit still, has this thing with his feet so that they need to touch everything so he was showing some signs of being on the spectrum.
We were lucky enough to have referral to a fabulous psychologist who specializes in both giftedness and autism. She said yes on the giftedness and nowhere on the autism spectrum. She expected that any behavioral problems were to do with him being under stimulated. At around the same time we made some changes so he had far more stimulation - he now goes to 3 different schools each week and he's like a new child and the tantrums have disappeared. Like all gifted boys he's still hard work though!
So if your DS has started some of these behaviors since starting at school (I noticed you said he was unhappy at school) it may be that he is so stressed by being under stimulated it's causing him to behave in this way. It may also be adhd/aspergers so it would be great if you could find a psychologist who specializes in 2G to assess him so both possibilities could be considered.
