I recently had an interesting conversation about this very topic with a friend who is getting his teaching degree. He did a paper on AS, partly because he has a nephew with AS and he's concerned with proper ID'ing of this group. He gave me an example of how an AS kid and a gifted kid might respond in a particular situation, and the only difference is the motivation (which could be tricky for a teacher to distinguish without follow-up): A teacher tells the students in the class to bring their mats to the middle of the room. One student refuses. The teacher asks the student to please go get his mat. He doesn't budge. (And so on.) The teacher ends up talking a parent, who asks if the teacher asked the student why he wouldn't get his mat. She had not. When asked, he says that he does not have a mat, he has a rug. The parent explains that one part of the student's AS makes him take things quite literally, and he would have felt he was lying if he brought over his rug, which was not a mat as the teacher asked.
I could imagine a smart-alecky and bored gifted kid doing the same thing, but with a different motivation ("I don't have a mat, I have a rug" - just to be difficult and act out when in an unchallenging placement).
Yes, I am so familiar with this kind of scenario with my son who has AS diagnosis. Children with AS often have impairments of comprehension including misinterpretations of literal/implied meanings. My son has problem understanding idioms and he rarely uses them in his daily life. He also lacks inference skills so, even though he excels in most academic subjects, his reading comprehension is his major weakness.
I think AS is more than excessive obsession and social awkwardness. My son's been in behavioral/ social skills therapy for 5 years and his therapy sessions are mainly for developing "Theory of mind".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind His therapist says significant deficit/delay of Theory of Mind is usually seen in children with AS and autism while gifted children with some issues usually have normal-developing Theory of Mind skills.
