Thanks for all the replies, NanRos, DeeDee, Venture and Grinity.
It does sound like there is "something". I was perplexed enough to read up on ADD in the last few months and he fits the bill to a T in some areas, but he also has no trouble learning (the GT bit, I suppose). But when school over here started 2 weeks ago (term 3), the complaints this time have come in fast and furious. Plus his science teacher hinted about possible ADHD because of the literal in-your-face inattention. He also brought up the fact that DS will suddenly volunteer seemingly unrelated information. This is the first time I've heard about this last behaviour, but I have my doubts about this one. Many times, DS makes unusual unconnections that, when I give pause, gives me a blinding insight. I can't think of any examples offhand, but many times, I've exclaimed, "hey, that's a really interesting point of view!". So the issue is also of finding a teacher who "gets" my son.
We have no access to gifted specialists here. We don't even mind traveling for help, but like Grinity says, there are no scientific tests for ADHD. And having reviewed the literature, I'm against medicating. It's so true, in a different environment like when we homeschooled, we had great fun learning. I'm now quite inclined to treat the behaviour on a more holistic basis. Thankfully, there are quite a few good therapists here for LDs and for Aspergers (tks for flagging this, DeeDee. That was how this IQ testing partially started to begin with. The psych thinks not, but DS needs some social coaching for sure) so I will work with what's available.
"When the material gets challenging if this habit is ingrained then the failure starts." Grinity, this sentence rings so true. It ties in with the perfectionism that Venture talked about, and in my son's case, his self image. For sure, this is one of the main reasons why homeschooling is a great idea in our case. I still get the jitters thinking about it, but I'm gonna just suck in my gut and jump in with both feet.
