After having some issues last year with bullying and difficulty with finding friends, we sought a psychologist who specializes in gifted kids. She worked with DS8 once a week for maybe nine or ten weeks this summer. She talked to DS about why people tease and bully others and how to make new friends. I don't know if something just clicked with him this year, if the additional subject acceleration is making him happier, or if all the money that we spent had a return on investment. (It was not covered by insurance! Ouch!) But he is a much, much happier child these days, and that is worth every penny of it!
I would highly recommend going to someone who specializes in gifted kids. The psychologist really understood him: all of the asynchronous development issues, social issues due to grade acceleration, and the problems of finding a like-minded friend. She helped him see that the bullying was about the other kids' problems and not a reflection on him. She worked through ways of dealing with bullying and also worked on different levels of friendship (acquaintances, playmates, and best friends) and how you go about generating those friendships.
We are currently generating a lot of new friendships and the bullying is greatly reduced. Last week and older kid came up during lunch and told DS that the only reason that he was special was because no one liked him! But DS just shrugged it off and thought that it was a pretty pointless comment.
