What I do (I'm a sole developer working from my home office) when in that situation is to make a DETAILED list of up to 10 'next steps' in the project. These steps should be of the granularity of about an hour each. As you do each one, give yourself a little reward -- a walk about is good.

My son is in your demographic (mathematically gifted and 12 years old)... He has Lego Mindstorms. That's a good introduction to simple logic constructs with a physical response. He likes Scratch (MIT) and Alice (Carnegie-Mellon) which have the same drag and drop concept of programming. I've also introduced him to C++ via Visual Studio Express Edition and the DarkGDK, but that tends to get slow because his typing skills aren't all that good yet. It is all good. The important thing is to have a series of attainable goals on the way to a complete working *something*.

do you have a DL available?

I am wanting to stay away from the game console. I want it to be a learning experience, it just playing games.

I never said for him to play games. Anyways have you read the news? Studies have shown playing games does help with mental acuity, hand eye coordination, and is linked with being a better problem solver.

Apparently according to people on this post, they do have the dexterity to control a mouse. Using a computer does not necessarily mean programming, or that he would be alone with it. I go to my pediatrician for medical Issues (he is a medical doctor), not technical ones. That is why I came here being a tech board I expected a bit more understanding, and really didn't expect this fear of using computers. Yes I know there are different learning Theories (I am a college instructor) and want to cater to them, and expose him to the computer as a tool that he can use for his creativity.

Thank you, That was my thinking exactly.

I actually started on a TI99/4A, I disassembled it to the circuit boards, and reassembled it when I was 4. Have been taking things apart to see how they work ever since.

Thanks, He does have blocks, mega blocks, A Little Drum Set (best friend got it for him), books, and a large yard, I was just wanting to give him something else that we could do together.

The same thing happened to me, When I was in kindergarten they put me in the 2nd grade class as a punishment for being "disruptive" in my class, and I would watch what they did instead of doing my own work, and my mom would get calls daily. but at least I know what to watch for, and some way to deal with it when it comes to that time.

That't the reason that I wanted to get something that was "his", so that if he did mangel it I just had to reinstall it, not everything on the ones that my wife and I use.

do you have a link for Childplay?

I guess I should have mentioned the supervision part in my original post, and not left it for people to assume.

How has it held up to him/her?

I started him off with a mouse, but it was just too frustrating for him. A couple of months with the trackball was all he needed to get hooked on the computer. Then he had the motivation to learn to use a mouse. -- funny thing about alice.... I talked to him about it yesterday after school and one of his friends had just started using it too. He downloaded it last night and mucked around for a couple of hours. I think he got as far as controlling a 3D cat to walk around a plane with the arrow keys.