First of all, welcome! And yes, you should definitely be here.
I saw a few threads here where posters described their not yet 2 year old being able to do incredible manipulation of numbers and letters well before they're supposed to. My son is nothing like this.
Every kid is different. My DS6 is the kind of kid who has a tendency to do a ton of "background processing" and then, after awhile, emerge at an advanced (sometimes near mastery) level, so perhaps yours has a similar approach to learning.
After a few months of playing with the whiteboard every night after dinner, he was adding and subtracting three and four digit numbers with ease. He learned his times tables while he was still four. By his fifth birthday, he was multiplying three digit by 3 digit numbers and dividing four digit by two digit numbers. Around this time, he also learned how to manipulate fractions and operate on them in both mixed and improper form.
This screams gifted to me. Most 6-year-olds simply do not do this.
I have considered looking into some gifted and talented programs, but all of these require IQ testing by a registered clinical psychologist. I wanted to get a feeler on this forum about whether this is something I should even consider for my child given his background (no gifted traits before three, takes in new information like a sponge after four).
If you think that it will help him get the services that he needs, you should not hesitate to get him assessed. If you're pretty sure that first grade has nothing for him to learn academically, I'd say you're spot on looking into the gifted program.
FYI, the process of getting your child assessed will likely be an emotional roller coaster ride for you (I just went through this and was a complete mess... I can PM with you all the gory details). But keep in mind that parents can be blinded by their child's exceptional abilities for various reasons (lack of an "average" child as a reference point, Impostor Syndrome, etc.). We ended up applying to a gifted school for my DS, and they required an IQ test as well. We thought he'd end up scoring on the mildly gifted end but were completely floored when he tested highly gifted. So it's definitely better to know.
