We just had DD5 tested because of some issues with handwriting. I figured she was more mildly gifted give or take a little. She seems to regular compared to her 12 yr old EG/PG brother. Ha I was shocked with a score just 2 points below him. She gets along with anyone. She can read people and situations a 1000X better than he could at 5. She is less intense and goes with the flow better. He is more quirky and walks to a different drummer. He struggled to adjust to school and situations up until about 9 or 10.
Lots of GT kids are perfectly "normal" by outward appearances, but we hear about the quirky oddballs a lot more.
We have been doing Handwriting without Tears all summer. I give her every possible opportunity to write the "list" for us. Sometimes it's a grocery list, somedays it is the To Do List for the day. She doesn't like writing, but the "list" give her a feeling of a role and importance.
There is a difference between "normal" and "normative."
My dd, now 13, is and has pretty much always been (well, since she was about 3) "normative." Umm-- to everyone, I mean. Completely "normative" with age-mates... completely "normative" with random adults... completely "normative" with my PhD and grad student colleagues...
seriously-- to the point that she simply makes others feel so comfortable in their own skins that they regard her as a peer within a few moments.
That, too, is PG. Socially PG, I mean. Some kids have this kind of giftedness as well as profound intellect. It's a jaw-dropping thing to watch your 6yo handle a sticky situation with a peer better than you know you yourself would have. For reference, my DD is 13 now and entering her junior year in high school. She is in the top 0.5% of her class, which includes some EG/PG kids who are not particularly accelerated. She just finds common ground with anyone and is extremely deft at communicating and reading people.
