Am I Confused? (with some nickname analysis)

I think I must have been confused by the stories some, mainly the first one. When Hal has his outburst and the administration becomes frightened it had at first occurred to me that Hal might just be so gifted that the administration couldn’t even comprehend what he said. What I don’t understand is why Wallace makes Uncle Charlie agree that Hal has problems unless he really did. It would make sense seeing as how his uncle is always talking for him and he’s so shy. I assumed that since it was from Hal’s point of view, he might have seen himself as giving the rousing speech he had so wanted to give but in reality he couldn’t get out the great things he had done, and instead his physical disorders stopped him from being able to communicate his intelligence to anyone. From what I knew about the book beforehand I assumed that it would be referred to again as being the long-term consequence of some drug addiction (which we learn he has later on). Essentially making Hal a depressing character who has an entire wealth of knowledge but cannot apply it.I also thought it was interesting how each character in the family has some sort of vague nickname, Hal, O, The Moms, Him, C.T., these names sort of act as a mask for each of the characters and represent the way that each character hides their own secrets and demons from the rest of the world (and their own family) by means of them. They also take away the person’s identity, making them no longer a person, but Letters or a Pronoun.