Whether or not he's technically "gifted" - it sounds like he has some very real strengths combined with some challenges. As the parent of children with challenges, I think it's really important to be sure we help them have opportunities to build on their strengths when they are young because the time devoted to therapies etc to deal with their challenges can too easily take over and become "everything" in their day. While it's so very very important to provide the time put into therapies/remediation/etc focused on challenges, just a small amount of time spent on building in areas that are stengths and passions at the same time will pay off many times over in sefl-esteem.
Like Amy, I'd recommend a neuropsych eval - having the full picture of intellectual abilities isn't so important in terms of the actual numbers as it is in terms of where are the weak spots and where are the strengths. The benefit of going through a full neuropsych eval is that they will look at the whole picture - which includes detailed parent interview and development history - as well as following up on any apparetnly low ability areas with further testing to determine what might be up. You've noted your ds struggles with attention - two of my 2e children also have struggled with attention - and neither one has ADHD - the things that looked like difficulty focusing were due to other types of challenges. You've asked your question here in terms of "is he gifted" and a neuropsych eval will help give you #s to quantify that, but I think more importantly, it might also help you evaluate *why* he seems to have difficulties with attention.
Best wishes,
polarbear
