My DD5 was not hitting her milestones early and at the 18 month mark, her expressive vocabulary was on the lower end of the expected range. I honestly thought that we would have to look into early intervention because she rarely spoke. However, she knew her alphabets by this time and by her 2nd birthday she was doing those lower case alphabet word puzzles. By 3 she was would not stop talking.
I always thought she was more bright than gifted because i was in denial. Probably because of the general "oh people think their bright kids are gifted" scoffs. She still needed guidance and had to do something multiple times before she got it. But in my head, i thought gifted kids figured things out after 1-2 times. :P For example, she started doing puzzles around 2.5 and by 3y3m she could do 100 piece puzzles on her own. But i thought - well, she still needed help in the beginning...
We definitely feed the rage, and i noticed her development has just jumped in leaps and bounds this past year. Good luck and i hope your local district is able to support your kids!
