Outside of the fact that we knew he could memorize fairly quickly. (He started showing signs of that skill at age 3) There was nothing that we saw in his behavior that said "Wow, what a genus". Being our first child, I had no academic expectations but when his P-K teacher said he was really smart I decided to spend the summer with him to see what he could learn before entering K. He learned over 250 words and add/subtraction up to 15.
It seems to be that it is often much more apparent to others how bright / gifted / advanced our children are than it is to us as parents. We had heard a ton from friends about how well my DS talked for his age and how personable he was. Even we as his parents had figured that part out but didn't necessarily think that it meant a whole lot. When he was 2, a retired school teacher told us out-of-the-blue that that she thought he was a genius, even though he wasn't doing anything even remotely prodigious (and she wasn't using hyberbole, either). I still don't get that one. To be honest, we didn't realize the level of his intelligence until the results of his IQ assessment came back. Even then I was convinced that the psychologist had made a mistake. She hadn't.
This is, apparently, a common phenomenon. Here are a couple of recent threads:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....8175/Re_Gifted_Does_anyone_feel_dou.htmlhttp://giftedissues.davidsongifted....5701/Perception_on_LOG_with_my_chil.htmlAnyways, if you don't really see a problem and the school is challenging him enough, I wouldn't worry about whether he tests at the gifted level (arguably about 2 SDs above the mean, or about 130 on most IQ scales). However, if you feel that the school isn't going to lead on being able to challenge your son adequately, it's worth getting an IQ test to gain some perspective about how your son learns and what his areas of strength and weakness are cognitively. That also will give you more information to be able to make a case for your son for different types of acceleration (if necessary).
