Do you think this particular checklist would do that?
If anything, it seems to me that it would steer away some gifted kids, not make people think kids are gifted who are not. But maybe my memory of the checklist is flawed. (It has been several years...)
I could see either happening. A parent of a gifted late bloomer or one who doesn't fit neatly into her lists could be steered away, perhaps. A parent of a normal bright average child who has been led to believe that her child is gifted by the schools b/c the child reads above grade level, for example, could also misinterpret or misrecall early childhood milestones to fit in with the inaccurate perspective she already has.
It's been a while since I've seen this checklist as well, but I do recall that some of the items are very subjective: liking TV, reading chapter books, playing with shape sorters. As others have said, are we talking about a child who sucked on the shape sorter blocks and "played" with them or a child who was sorting hexagons into the correct holes? Are we talking about a child who watched Sesame Street like many other kids or a child who had some other unusual response to TV? Chapter books? A parent whose child loves to read and who reads well might call her 6 y/o reading Junie B. Jones the same as the child reading high level chapter books whereas I would call my 6 y/o reading The Call of the Wild her reading chapter books.
