I am a parent who is blown away by my DD learning the alphabet and I mean identifying letters both capital and lower case etc. It seems that it is a bit young for me to know whether she will fit into the criteria of "gifted". I am also not sure that I can call any one else's astonishments of their childs abilities as "pseudo gifted". I am sad to think that any child's abilities whether seeming advanced or not could be labeled by another's in comparison with their own child. I also think of how many of us on this board have heard teachers tell us that our kids are something other than gifted and how much that hurts and causes confusion. I have already been seen as someone who is "pushing" my child not because any one watched me do it but because of what my child knows.
I don't think anyone meant the question of 'the list' to offend anybody on this board and if you were offended I just want to apologize. JMHO but yes rote memorization at an early age is a 'possible' sign of gifted. It really comes down to the wait and see game and also if the child in question learned so in less repetition than the norm. I could rattle off the list of what my DD accomplished at an early age, such as ABCs by 9 months; counting before 1 yr, etc and it goes towards justifying our beliefs that she is gifted, absolutely. But as she got older we noticed the advanced cognitive development which is huge for IQ and her imagination and humor, along with many many more. The bottom line (for me) is all these signs are small pieces to the puzzle and most of the time 'the list' is just the beginning.
