My ds has some exposure at school but even more of his exposure is his own reading and self learning style. I'm sure exposure matters on achievement testing but it doesn't have to be formal schooling or prepping.
I agree, and I wasn't necessarily talking about "formal" schooling, but I wonder if a gifted child who didn't have parents who exposed him to books and discussions and summer camps and I don't know - what I think most of us here do for our kids- would have a chance of being identified.
On prepping, I'm not sure how much you can prep a ND kid and get improved results on Talent Searches. I'm sure prepping a GT kid would most likely improve the scores. The kids have to have a certain level of readiness to teach higher levels. If I needed DS to have scores for entrance to a school or something of that nature. I'm sure I would have considered prepping him. Just like he will prep come college time.
That makes sense to me. Obviously, if all kids could benefit from accelerated math, we'd be teaching algebra in 5th grade instead of 8th or 9th in our public schools. I guess I just wonder how much of it is pure talent/capacity and how much is exposure.
