I don't know anything about Dr. Ruf or this website, but I took a quick look at the descriptions of levels of giftedness and the I.Q. ranges they are supposed to correspond to seem way off to me.
One of my kids is very consistent across different areas and has taken the WPPSI-III (140), WISC IV (148), and SB V (140, but he was quite sick and rescheduling wasn't an option). This testing was done with two different testers. Because of his extreme consistency I doubt his I.Q. is being underestimated, but it's not being overestimated either. He is physically healthy and has been in a simulating and secure environment since birth, so no issues there. IOW, I am reasonably confident that his I.Q. is no lower than 140 and no higher than 148. So going by I.Q. he should be in the level 4-5 range. He is no where near what is described for level 5, and it would be a stretch to describe him as level 4. Level 3 I could go along with, but even some of those criteria seem too advanced to describe him. However, Dr. Ruf says the frequency of level 3 children is one in 100 - my son is clearly more unusual than that. In fact, I would argue that he is not 1 in 200 either (what Dr. Ruf estimates as the frequency of Level 4). So going by frequency and I.Q. he is clearly level 4-5. But the descriptions seem a little, uhh...insane?
Now, I know my children and I am very confident that they aren't "out there" smart. I do realize that there are other children doing exceptional things - I don't think it's a fairy tale for a child to read at 2. But I also don't think that judging a child's intellect on such criteria as, "They have favorite TV shows before 6-8 months" has much value. And although my kids happen to have been extremely alert infants I'm sure there are a lot of babies who were not who turned out to be smart.
In short - these levels of giftedness seem way, way out of whack to me. I'd be curious to hear what other people think. I have another son who is not so consistent who i could not even attempt to categorize using Ruf's descriptions.
