The Ruf estimates have bothered me because they seem to be pretty behavior- and personality-dependent. If you look, for example, at his level two, it says this about level two students:
"These bright children love looking at books and being read to, even turning pages without ripping them, by 15 months."
While I'm sure some gifted/precocious kids were like this, mine sure wasn't. He's nearly four and still turns pages carelessly. At that age, he could barely sit still for a book. He's reading now, and can add, subtract, has an understanding of fractions and inequalities, but at 15 months? Heck no. He was clearly bright back then, but a patient, careful page-turner he was not. We have no clue where he'll fall on the gifted spectrum, but if you looked at Ruf's list and what they're supposed to do during their baby and early toddler years, it doesn't match up.
His lists seem to "reward" a certain personality type and direction of interest, especially at the younger ages. It wouldn't bother me as much if there was some kind of disclaimer about these being examples of common behavior in gifted children.
