Its amazing some of the things you've said about your stepson's behavior. Its almost as if you've taken both of my sons and crossed them a bit. My oldest is very bright, straight A's in school but very immature, he had some pretty nutty ideas of how or why things worked. He's now 23 years old and in the Navy, very smart, but to me still very immature. He doesn't drive, feels no need to learn, is very into his own world during his off time, draws (he's an excellent artist) and goes to movies every chance he gets. He was diagnosed as auditory dyslexic in primary school. It was explained to me that he hears things correctly, but it is processed differently in his brain so he appears off in his behavior. My other son is currently 20 now and in the military as well, (Army) he’s training as a medic, so again very intelligent. He has Tourette Syndrome which has been in remission for the past 7 years. He had irritating verbal outbursts, not cussing, but just annoying sounds and "voices" that constantly got on your nerves as well as his many physical tics such as having to touch things evenly, everything had to be even all the time or it would make him nuts and almost non-stop elbow popping and or eyerolling. Possibly your step son has a medical condition such as either of these neurological conditions that is the source of his irritating behavior. My Aunt is an elementary school principal and she’s the one who suggested to me that my youngest may have Tourette Syndrome… I was offended at first thinking that only really sick people had Tourette Syndrome. Shows how ignorant I was, thankfully my sons case was moderate. (I’d have preferred mild, but he’s in remission now, so I’m happy!) Talk to your family doctor, they can set up a neurological testing session for him. Its an all day testand observation session, you pack a lunch for your child and drop him off at the center, they do all sorts of exercises as well as written and verbal tests. This is also where we found out that not only did our youngest have Tourettes Syndrome, he also has Disgraphia. In many ways its such a relief to find out for sure if there is a neurological disorder or not because then you don’t feel like you’ve done something wrong. Sometimes its just a fluke of nature that just needs special attention to get everyone on the right track. Hopefully this is not offending to you. I don’t mean to have this sound that way, sometimes its just hard to put the written word into a mild tone.
Good luck to you both.
