But to jar a parent--like, say, ME!--out of gifted denial, Ruf's book is very useful. I thought DS9 was "just" moderately gifted, and we were prepared to spend years trying to jam the square peg that he is into the school's round hole, no matter how disasterous the results. Ruf's book changed all that for me. The anecdotal evidence of other gifted kids was useful to me because I could see my son in the children she described. I could see where he was "more this, but less that" than the kids she discussed.
Same here. It was my very first book about gifted children I read. I was quite shocked by the discovery that not only was my older one gifted but he was much more than MG. I enjoyed the anecdotal evidence much more than Ruf's list of milestones. Reading what other parents had to say and comparing my child to theirs was an eye opening experience. It was exactly what I needed at that time.
I, like others don't buy into her way of basing LOG on early milestones, but I do like the idea of different LOGs and the fact that the needs of MG and PG are not exactly the same.
If I remember it correctly both of my DYS fit nicely into the Level 4 category when they were around the age of 4. I based more decision more on the anecdotal evidence than the lists. It has been a while since I opened the book, perhaps it's time to see what I would think about it now.
BTW Was it only me or were there others who were slightly surprised by the LOGs Dr. Ruf assigned to her own children?
As for the website, I think it's like the book in that it's a first step/wake-up call. It's a computer applying the lists in the book to a given child. Any parent could do the same thing without paying the money. I don't think it is anything definitive, nor is it really supposed to be, I suspect.
I too would suggest the book just to see what other parents dealt with, what they children used to do, what problems they faced. It's really interesting from that point of view.
That said I could see myself paying for the test way, way back, when I knew close to nothing about gifted children.
