I think that this is just part of intelligent 'testing' of the environment that a bright kid finds itself in. My DD was a true and literal terror at that age. I used to think 'God - please let her be precocious so that this is the "terrible twos"' - it wasn't; she got worse, a lot worse before she got better.
I still remember one time that DW told her to do something and DD (3 at the time) immediately started arguing about it. When DW tried to stop this DD replied 'But if you don't teach me to argue Mummy then who will?'. DW and I still chuckle about it now but it was hard to keep a straight face at the time.
By 4 she had learned to 'deal' and is now a sweet child for the most part (now 8).
Just noting that those verbal kind become
really formidable again in a disciplinary sense around age 11-14. Worse, they really CAN out-argue most adults, so hone your own skills in the interim, believe me-- and learn to research anything in a HURRY so as to provide backup evidence to refute their hare-brained teenaged logic, because they'll certainly be researching to back their own positions.
They are like hotshot TV attorneys with massive research teams... on a RedBull bender. With a side order including the common sense of gnats.
(oy.)
So. Teaching rhetoric and debate has a down side, too. Just saying.
