Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Unnecessary angst over early reading?

As for early reading and angst, the angst we had was not over why our kid could not read early, but rather why he could.* Ruf's book and the concept of LOG were quite helpful to my family. When my kiddo was in fact reading at a very young age, we as parents had bad memories of being extremely underchallenged in school and worried about what to do with our son, who was reading earlier than either of his parents, among other things. Reading all the stories of what kids were doing at different young ages was very comforting, since we finally discovered that we weren't alone. I also found myself in those stories, and realized for the first time that I was gifted (despite having been in gifted pullouts as a kid), and what that meant for me.

Just wanted to pipe in that although her sample size was very small, and her parameters do not fit all kids, my reading of the book was that not all kids would show the early traits, and that if your kid didn't, it doesn't mean they are not gifted. I took out of it that if your kid shows many of the traits listed, there is a greater likelihood that he will fall into a particular LOG, and that there is a lot of crossover in the LOG. I admit my viewpoint is probably a bit skewed, since it matched our experiences in many ways. Not all the markers fit - DS never liked jigsaw puzzles and still believes in Santa (a little bit anyway).

I think the concept of LOG in itself is extremely important, and we learned this first hand since our son now has 2 years of school under his belt. (I know, not a lot of schooling yet.) There was not GT programming in kindy, but we advocated for more advanced work, and when the school tested our DS on their own tests, they agreed that he was unusual and needed more challenging work. The school then agreed that 1st grade would not be enough, and agreed to a grade skip. Skipping first is one of the recommendations in Ruf's book as well, and for us, it worked out great. Second grade in the local school, with GT pullouts and other differentiation, was still not enough. We finally found a good fit mid-year in a school for HG kids where they work one year ahead and at a faster pace.

I am describing our experience simply because we do fall into the group of people whose experiences match Ruf's advice. Going simply by the early milestone LOG guidelines, our son fell into level 4, and Ruf's description about how it would be difficult to have a level 4 kid's needs met in the regular school system have so far proven true. I know that her advice does not ring true for everyone, but that does not mean that your child is not gifted.

*ETA: I am not intending by this post to brag that "my kid did this," but I'm just responding to give a contrasting viewpoint about Ruf's book and LOGs. Feel free to post your opposing views and to let me know if I'm coming across as bragging. I know that many people have had very different experiences with this topic. If there is one book or concept that is helpful to everyone all the time, that would be wonderful, and I'd love to hear about it! The fact is that there are very slim pickins re: books and research on GT kids and especially HG kids. Hopefully there will be more soon.