I think the internet has hugely intensified pushy-parent syndrome, so that if a child is not obviously delayed there's a bigger chance than ever that her parents will think she's possibly gifted.
I think that happens a lot here. You see it when parents post scores of a child that are not at the gifted level (or PG level, depending on what the are testing for) and other parents try to convince them or go along with the parent's explanation that the test was probably faulty due to illness/distraction/perfectionism/bad tester/etc. All those things are possible. But it's also possible that the child is just not gifted (or just not that gifted). One standard deviation above the norm is quite large and children with those scores can accomplish quite a bit. You don't have to score in the gifted range to be able to read early, excel in school, take advanced classes, go to med school, etc. Just as skipping a grade or two or subject acclerating several doesn't mean that you have to be PG to accomplish that.
I agree completely. Some things I've often noticed here:
1. When someone posts scores, they often give extra information designed to give the impression that the test scores are low. This seems to happen even with DYS-level scores, as if they're something to apologize for; it appears to happen over the entire spectrum of scores.
2. There is somewhat of a tendency to engage in one-upmanship. This happens with testing info sometimes, but has also happened in discussions of milestones and school advancement.
3. There is sometimes a tendency to false modesty: for example, acting like a smart child's skills actually scare the parents by virtue of being so advanced.
4. There is a bit of cliquishness, or so it seems to me. Talking about "these sorts of kids", you know 'em once you've had 'em, that sort of thing. I think that this is may be a form of response to the fact that people come here with information or questions on children who are pretty obviously not DYS level or above in current ability.
5. There is a borderline obsession over categorization, e.g. the Ruf levels or the labels of HG, EG, PG, with or without pluses. Once one's kid reaches the gold standard of DYS admission, one's kid is able to be labeled PG here. I think this may be a sort of safe haven for a parent's ego.
I don't want to offend anyone, and I should mention that I myself may have done some of these things too. I consider these sorts of behaviors to be natural and unavoidable in a group, due in part to the way intelligence scores are viewed. You reduce a person to a number, where a higher number is better, and it's going to create stress. And many of these behaviors have a rational basis. There certainly are bad testers, perfectionism, etc. I view the comments by parents going along/commiserating as confirming those parents' views of their own children, but also as driven by honest emotion for fellow sufferers.
