Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion 5 Levels of Gifted Sharing Thread

I think the book doesn't have all that much going for it other than being pretty interesting and getting the idea out there that there are indeed levels of giftedness, which is pretty important. If you look at the IQ #s and descriptions, though, they're all over the place in the same level. I do think Level 1 and Level 5 probably have more validity and sense to them than the 3 middle levels.

If I was going to hazard a guess, DD and DS are surely somewhere in the levels 2-4 range, but that's about all I can tell you, really. DD8 was a pretty showy toddler--500+ words, the full alphabet (upper and lower), all colors, shapes, numbers, and a LOT of bird and plant names by 18 months. She memorized tons and tons of lengthy books in her early twos and threes. She had a lot of sight words by 18-24 months, too. But she actually didn't read till early 5, though she then took off and was reading 3rd and 4th grade chapter books within a few months. She appears HG now in 2nd grade and is also highly artistic and a gifted writer. She is good at math and science as well, but not a math whiz or anything. I am confident she is not PG, though I thought she might be when she was small.

DS was a significantly less showy toddler. He talked later, though still early; he knew all the toddler "stuff" 6-8 months later. He did have the exact same knack for memorizing books. And he learned chess at 3, easily and rather well. In fact he's yet to find a child's game he can't learn (admittedly, I haven't tried him on something like Monopoly, but chess is hard!) He is actually obsessed with games (please, someone, come over and play games with him). He is now reading quite well--probably early 2nd grade level? I forget what actual grade level is, since DD has always been so far ahead. He has an incredibly encylopedic knowledge in his area of interest (the ocean). Interestingly, his one slightly weaker area may be math; I remember DD being a little more of a "natural" with math at this age (intuitively understanding things like multiplication, for instance). I'm beginning to suspect that he may be in the EG range. However, he is easier-going than his sister and may choose a somewhat different path.