This is interesting. DS7 has attention issues that I'm trying to get to the root of. He's balking at all the testing we've done lately (vision, CognitiveMap, initial hearing test), so I'm laying off for awhile. We don't have any gifted specialists here, but his pysch is very in tune with him. She thinks he's easily distracted from tasks by racing thoughts, which is part of gifted traits. He's not a clear cut case according to her.

For sure, I see what you guys are saying - he was only tuned into math from algebra on. Before that, it was a struggle jumping from topic to topic as they all didn't hold his interest, hands on learning or not. Yet he'd come out with little calculations here and there (number of people in a restaurant, prime numbers in odd places etc). So we didn't do drills, just concepts.

I checked through his Wisc IV report and his processing speed is in the +70th percentile while the rest are in the +99%. This is what necessitated the calculation of the GAI. At the time, the tester told me that he was processing quickly (no need to relook after once or twice to remember the symbols), but he was writing laboriously (he has fine motor skill issues) and after a while, stopped to crack a joke.

He also stops processing when presented wtih a new task, say, a completely different math problem from what he knows. He does need persuasion to get started, but it's generally alright. Is this part of perfectionism?

I read Misdiagnosis which contains this statement: "if a child can sit down and do Lego for 45mins, he basically doesn't have ADHD". Is this the experience of most parents here? Mine can do Lego the whole day, but he does quickly zone out when he has to do something uninteresting to him.

Another page that I found very heldpful was this:
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_counseling/Lind_BeforeReferringAGiftedChildForADD.shtml

It's so confusing. I'm starting to wonder if I can ever get a straight answer. Whether he does have ADHD, APD or not, I'd probably be looking at a non-med strategy (my initial gut reaction/feel) anyway.