Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Ruf's Levels

I tend to agree with Chris. Unless the situation is harmful for a child, a little bit of distraction isn't the worst educational outcome. Some of my best insight into patterns in calculus and my best creative writing came during class time. Although, if this is a normal occurance and causes disruptions, it might be time for a different strategy.

DW and I read the Ruf/Gross books over the weekend.

The books confirm what we are being told by our nanny and friends and by what we see when we compare Mr W ( 7m4d) to peers or even much older kids.

Frankly, between his behavior now and the trajectories mapped in the Ruf/Gross books, its a bit overwhelming.

The books at least give us a roadmap on what to expect because the regular baby books don't fit anymore.

I also just finished up the book (after flipping back and forth through it for the last week), and it was a very interesting read. The thing that was most enlightening was seeing DS4 and DD23mo in some of the upper level kids. I just don't think of them as gifted as DS6 because they didn't have his really early verbal abilities.

I even went back and looked at our home videos and the baby books. It's amazing the things I've forgotten! I remembered that DS6 was saying a couple of simple words at 6 months, I had completely forgotten the video of him at 2.5 months sitting with my mom staring at her mouth and desperately trying to imitate her talking but only managing to get out "ah-goo". That went on for well over half an hour (the video even stops and starts, so his attention span was longer than mine, lol).

I'm still not really clear on exactly which level DS6 fits because while he's now a couple to several years ahead in all academic skills, he only really started talking and reading early (and even the reading wasn't until his 5th birthday). I mostly see him as a 3 with a bit of 4 in him, except that I don't think he did any really precocious math or reading. There was video of him counting the Easter eggs and naming their colors at 26 months, but that's not so unusual I don't think. I also know he had most of his board books memorized by then and I was reading chapter books to him at night, but again, nothing I would really consider so extreme. So, is that the distinction between 1/2 level and 3/4/5 level- that the kids in the upper levels did everything super early or is it that once they picked them up they zoomed ahead?

All in all, I'm glad I had the library get it for me, I think if I owned it I would be tempted to obsess, lol.

This is an non-professional opinion of course , but as someone who didn't think their child was truly GT before kindergarten because he didn't willingly read, I think the 2nd is at least an option. I can't tell you what level he reads at 7 because he reads whatever he wants - the newspaper, encyclopedias, comics, jr. high chapter books, back to 3rd grade chapter books.

I think LOG is a combination of speed of learning vs. exposure to a concept. Parents tend to expose their young kids to stuff they enjoy (or value). My son was more math and science precocious as a preschooler, but we just tended to do that kind of stuff at home. Not that we didn't read with him. We did, but we went from board books to chapter books. I never thought of exposing him to books he could try to read. By the time I got around to that, he was reading chapter books within months.

I was actually at a GT related meeting last night and they offer classes for HG+ kids. They were willing to use a definition of operating 3 or more grade levels above their age as a definition for HG if you didn't have test scores. I'm thinking that would correspond to levels 3,4,5.

Rumor has it that this is what DITD wants to see on the DYS applications, too--3 or more grade levels above age.

And I agree (as usual, kimck!) that both kinds of GT kids exist: those who did everything super early those who zoomed ahead once they picked something up.

Ruf's book was very important to me, but I always like to caution people NOT to use her explanation of levels to try to "rule out" GTness, only to "rule in" kids. If your child resembles the kids she describes, I think you probably have an HG+ child. If not, you may well still have an HG+ child!

Kids are individuals and they present as GT in different ways. Not all are early. Ruf's lists are one tool, but not the only tool.