My verbally gifted son always seemed very bright academically. Other people noticed it. I could see it in his eyes and the high energy that seemed to be focused on learning constantly. He was also highly sensitive. He always noticed things that I didn't. An older cousin noticed that he used a lot of similes and metaphors in his speech. He was preschool age at the time. When he was preschool age one of his doctors wrote "seems to be high IQ" on his chart. When he was about six and studying Shakespeare in musical theater class he memorized a lot of Shakespeare quotes and used them. For example, I told him that I thought he did something he wasn't supposed to do and he replied, "then die thy thoughts" in his best Shakespearean voice. Before he turned five he went on a bus ride with older kids from church. They asked him to identify words that they spelled out for him. They gave him the hardest words they could think of--science words--but he could identify science words easily because his favorite book at the time was a science encyclopedia. He also knew some multiplication and could do some mental math so they would occasionally ask him math questions, and he would get the right answer most of the time but he rarely missed a word that was spelled out for him, so that was more fun.
But he was born with low muscle tone and mild muscle weakness and did not have the strength to walk until he was 18 months old. He started reading and spelling words one year after he was able to walk. When he was tested by child developmental specialists at 12 months they said he was 50% delayed in gross motor skills but 50% ahead in receptive and expressive language skills. During the test he saw his alphabet book with the letter A and excitedly said A. Later he got excited when he saw the letter B on our piano. When he was older he did well in spelling bees. He loved to read books that were at a higher age level because lower level books did not contain the rich vocabulary that he liked. He always liked to read and analyze and discuss books-- but when he was younger his eyes got tired quickly because of so we had to take turns reading. He also played video games with kids several years older and memorized lines and lyrics faster than most of the older kids when he was young. He just fit in better with kids several years older. They were the only ones who got his jokes and understood the higher level vocabulary he used and were interested in the things he was interested in.
Except for the handwriting issues because his hands got tired quickly, and needing to rest during musical theater dance rehearsals because he fatigued faster than other kids, his mild low muscle tone didn't cause that much trouble for him. We homeschooled and he taught himself to type at 60 wpm on QWERTY and then later taught himself to use DVORAK because he thought it would be easier on his hands if he had to do a lot of typing. He writes well as long as he can type. He is teaching himself Japanese and German.
When he was 11 he found out that in addition to sensory and fatigue issues, he had developed scoliosis and would have to wear a painful brace for three or four years--until he stops growing. Trying to balance brace time and sleep and exercise is impossible and stressful. We deal with a lot of anxiety about this. Lack of sleep and hours of pain every day can slow anyone down. It can look like ADD, especially when he gets a migraine. I get those too, we are both sensitive to weather changes so we take breaks when we need to. He doesn't have the energy that he used to have. It might look to some people like he isn't as gifted as he once was, because he isn't doing a lot of writing or making a lot of progress in piano right now because he has to take so many breaks, but when he is out of the brace--hopefully by next summer, he will rebuild his strength and I think he will be mentally stronger from having had to deal with the disabilities.
