See, I've thought this way about him, too. If you've ever read the Clementine books, the lead character is just this way, too. She IS paying attention, just to other things. I remember saying to my DS's 1st grade teacher when she said he was easily distracted that I always thought of him a hyper-attentive and that he always noticed any changes in the room.
Still, his inattentiveness to his schoolwork is a seemingly big problem. I can't tell you how many times we have to say his name and remind him to get back to work. And I wonder, too, how much information he's missing at school if he's "in his head." The only other time we see a problem -- and boy is is frustrating -- is that he has a tendency to go into the bathroom and stay there for 30 minutes to an hour and you just know it's because he's sitting there thinking.
I looked at a web site (wikipedia, I think) that listed 9 symptoms of ADHD-Inattentive type and he has 6 of the traits. Does this sound clinical to you or just a sign of creatity and/or intelligence? We're pulling our hair out here!
