Hi -
Our pediatrician alerted us to the fact that our daughter - who is only 16 months - is likely profoundly gifted. To give the cliff notes, she has a massive vocab of thousands of words, knows colors, shapes, letters, counts to 20, can also count backwards from 10 or 12, can read a few sight words and also attempts to sound out some words. It's overwhelming, shocking, crazy, and ... did I mention overwhelming? She has a 3 year old brother who is also likely gifted (been reading since 2, great math and puzzle skills) and he loves to teach her things. We don't specifically teach her things, she just picks up a lot.

Our pediatrician told us that we would be wise to start looking for special education services in our area for her, and to prepare ourselves for the idea that she is going to need resources.

There is a private gifted school, about 50 minutes from our home. It's pretty expensive, and not a short drive. However, we would be willing to relocate if needed and make financial sacrifices where needed as well.

My question -- how would we know if an exclusive gifted school is needed? Are PG children generally best served by an exclusive gifted school? Our other option would be to send her to the local public schools. Their gifted programs, however, do not even begin until 3rd grade (they are cluster classrooms). The local public schools, like most in our state, are over crowded and underfunded. We live in Illinois, so there is no mandate for gifted programs and also no funding.

I guess I am hoping to hear from parents of other highly gifted or profoundly gifted children to hear what worked for them. How did you decide what schooling options to take? I'm not sure how to assess the value of this private gifted school, much less weigh that against moving our family to a new house.

Any thoughts? Also I'd love to hear from anyone whose kid sound similar to mine - especially those that are older now. I wonder if she may "level out" a bit and not seem quite so extreme as she gets older. Right now she is a bit of a spectacle where ever we go (she isn't shy, so you can imagine.)

Thanks in advance!