I'm going to answer for both myself and DD.
1. When did you first expected giftedness in your child?
DD: We suspected fairly early. She was always alert and was making (and acting on) connections by 7 months that many children are oblivious to. She has always been observant.
By age 3 a friend (and gifted educator) mentioned that our daughter reminded her "a lot of the kids at school". It really caused me to think a great deal about what it means to be "gifted".
ME: I know that my parents suspected before K. They petitioned for me to be tested into K early.
2. What milestones/traits (gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills, literacy skills, mathematical sills, social) really made you suspect giftedness?
DD: At 7 months DD got to play with the cups from my breastpump as I was cleaning them. The following day she refused to drink pumped milk (for over 8 hours); from a bottle, from a cup. She would only drink from the breast. She is VERY persistent. She was very interested in books from an early age and started memorizing books at 24 mo. by 2.5 she was "reading" environmental text; signs, logos, etc.
An acquaintance of ours died when she was 3. From that point on, she was very concerned about death. She is also a subject expert on pregnancy. By 2 she was using (trying to use) logic to convince me that I should do what she wanted: she particularly liked to use "reasonable" and "appropriate" in sentences.
She is also very interested in learning about the world around her; at 2 looking for the cause of the "doorbell" when we would enter a store.
ME: I was very verbal early, but I don't know of actual milestones.
3. Did your child have any delays? If so what area (gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills, literacy skills, mathematical sills, social)?
DD & ME: none.
4. Is your child 2E? If they are did they have other signs besides the obvious, more quantifiable ones?
DD & ME: Not that we know.
5. Has your child been tested?
DD: Yes, WPPSI-III at 4.11 to give us an idea of where she should be place for first grade. Likely she'll be screened again this school year.
ME: Yes, from what my parents explained to me, it sounds like I ceilinged the test used to place me in K. I was later given a full scale assessment in 2nd grade (probably SB-LM). I took the SCAT in 6th grade & SAT in 7th. My parents never officially shared the IQ scores... but the OLSAT in high school was listed on the score report.
6. Is your child across the board gifted or quite asynchronous? If so what are his/her strengths and were they obvious from a young age?
Both: I'd say globally gifted.
See below: DD is only 5 (she'll be 6 in Sept)
7. When your child was young (baby/toddler/preschooler), was their development fairly even or did they excel more in certain areas (gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills, literacy skills, mathematical sills, social)?
DD: Gross motor skills were/are on par with "normal" development. DD seems to excel at ballet though (high interest area). All her academic skills, including fine motor, seem to be advanced. She's emotionally and socially advanced as well.
ME: roughly the same as DD. Until recently (in my 30s) I didn't realize that part of the reason I was having problems deciding what to do when I "grew up" was that everyone said, "do what you're good at" or "do what's interesting to you". So many things fall into those categories that it's not limiting. Now I'm working in a field where I can use a multi-disciplinary approach; I'm helping people, using analysis, solving interesting problems, pulling various bits of data together to form a whole picture, and communicating.
Thanks for asking! It will be interesting to see what you come up with.
