Oh, I meant to say, too, that it doesn't sound to me like anything remotely like not being gifted 'enough', but rather like the sort of stubborn refusal to do the thing that made them feel bad originally thing my son has. I think of it as perfectionism-related. The oh, I didn't know that, now I will go nowhere near it, and besides, who needs to know that stupid thing anyway reaction, which has nothing to do with ability to do whatever it is. We try, a lot, to teach ds that mistakes and not knowing are good, not a sign of complete failure! I guess in that way, the gaps are an opportunity for learning to handle not knowing, which is really important. I do get weary of trying to anticipate what he'll decide about the world from any given experience and head off the counter-productive ones, though...
