I am a Ruf supporter also. Aside from �Guiding the Gifted Child�, her book has had the greatest impact on my understanding of our children.
I agree there could be additional milestones listed, such as �use of eating utensils� and �neatness while feeding themselves� such as Dottie had mentioned some time back. I think that may be another valid indicator and I�m sure there are plenty more.
As an example of how I use the listings, I know that my daughter used a spoon and fork quite well at a very early age. I am able to remember exactly how old she was when her skill was pointed out to us by numerous people during the week of my brother-in-law�s wedding in the early summer, while I was pregnant with DS. It wasn�t a new skill at the time, but I can definitely state that she could feed herself yogurt, Jell-O and fruit without spilling a drop some time before 21 months old. We lived in many different places when the kids were infants to pre-school age, so it may be easier for me to remember what they did when and where.
IMO, Ruf does differentiate very well between different progressive skills, such as, receptive versus expressive language; rote counting versus letter or number identification; word recognition on signs versus reading beginner books. I personally don�t find the lists at all subjective. My suggestion is to start with level five and work backwards. Find a level where you can answer 75% of the bullets with a "check", and that is a general starting point. From there, read the anecdotes of what other children of that level did at various ages to further tweak the presumed level for your child. I would guess this might help parents of half the GT population narrow down their child�s LOG.
I consider these listings as a means to identify gifted children who do develop certain skills and abilities early, rather than exclude those who have not met the listed milestones by a certain age.
