I've been pondering the same question ("Presenting in Different Way??") and am so glad to read this thread. I'm not the only one with this experience!
We have 3 kids. Oldest DS11 is DYS. He's very into science and technology. He's good in math, but not super mathy.
When now DD7 turned 6 last year, DH and I had a hard time deciding whether to test her or not. She was very well adjusted, we were really happy with her teacher and we had no suspicion whatsoever that she would be gifted. We knew she was quite bright. Based on the advice of many in this forum, we finally decided to have her tested. Sure enough, her PRI qualifies her for DYS. We didn't start the application process because we didn't have achievement test.
Yesterday, we had a psychologist came to our school and gave a talk about giftedness. She had the teachers trying to figure out characteristics of gifted vs. bright kids. She also talked about differentiation strategies that teachers could use in inclusive classroom.
Today, I spoke with her teacher, and asked her if she's willing to write recommendation for DD7 to apply for DYS. She was reluctant because she believed DD7 was really bright but not gifted. Then, she felt bad about saying this to me and apologized, but I told her not to worry because I myself was still trying to wrap my head around her test results! Yes, she can whip up a story really easily, and learn new songs in violin really quickly, but we're still waiting to see her "genius moment
At one point, I wondered if the tester had made a mistake. Our principal convinced me that test results were seldom wrong.
Our youngest, DD6, on the other hand, has shown really strong characteristics since she was really young. Then again, maybe because we've had experience with our oldest we now know what to look for. She's very verbal, very opinionated, very strong headed. She figured out negative number (1-2 = -1, 5-10=-5) without anyone ever taught her. She is very curious, and she is definitely intense!
I wonder if the reason why we don't see DD7's giftedness is because of our own perceptions of what giftedness should look like?
In any case, do have your DD tested! Like (I believe) Dottie said, you test one, you test all! And more data is always a good thing.
