most of the people that dealt with my daughter up until she was about four really didn't go "Wow-- she's sure bright." It was more like head scratching and "Hmmm. That's odd."
This is interesting. I've long thought that giftedness is MOST evident before age 6 or so, mostly because differences are so much more obvious at very young ages. A six-year-old reading Bob books? That's expected. Chapter books for the first time? Hey, the kid's bright. But a two or three-year-old doing either? That's very unusual or extremely unusual. Even more telling is that a child who is very young can RETAIN information about how to read and
progress. I've overheard a couple conversations about six-year-olds with the parents saying that they'd taught the child to read a year ago, but s/he hadn't progressed. This is normal --- except with HG+ kids.
For this reason, I'm not sure why GATE testing seems to mostly start at the end of 3rd grade, for 4th grade. It makes no sense to me.
