Hi vicbee.

Welcome to the board and it sounds like you found the right place. Everything you described are characteristics of the gifted. Gifted children tend to develop in asynchronous development. http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=1211 might be a good place to start researching it.

Not knowing your child and just going off of the understanding of asynchronous development; I would argue the point of not holding him back. But my daughter is 4.5 and I don't feel comfortable advising you on this. I'm sure someone who has been through it all will be more valuable with their opinion. I will say that my child still has some socialization issues but I expect this and know it is part of her uneven development. She is doing better with her agemates but even this weekend when given the chance to be with a kid that was her age she chose to play with the older sister who is in 1st grade. My DD goes to a Spanish Immersion program which is academically 2 years ahead of public schools, which still isn't enough for her but we have had the buffer of learning Spanish. The buffer is no longer there and we are concerned she isn't challenged anymore. Her school will accelerate her if we need to and when the time comes I really don't think I would hesitate because I know she is happier with older kids. If you put yourself in their shoes it can be daunting to be in an environment where the others just don't get them.

Where to start? I would look into getting him tested for IQ level and there are specialist that deal with the gifted population. http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/psychologists.htm is a link to some professionals who work with gifted kids. Why test? It gives you a better picture of what you are dealing with. Is your child moderately gifted to highly gifted? These kids are more in line with some subject accelerations but if you child is in the higher range of exceptionally or profoundly gifted then you are talking about the need for even more. Best to see what you are dealing with.

I hope that helps and I'm sure others will be commenting.