Reviving an old thread here that resonates with me...
I think that the stereotype of say, reading by 2 years old, discovering new elements, a more elegant proof of Fermat's last theorem and completing an Ngala opera by age 4 and decoding the mystery of Andean quipas by 7 is really damaging. I felt embarrassed and presumptuous for even testing my DD for giftedness until I found that my DD who didn't learn to read until about five and a half is apparently gifted.
My DD is a normal (ish) 9 year old that happens to have a GAI > 99.9 percentile an FSIQ at the 99.8 %'tile. While she can be intense and preternaturally observant but she will also play my little pony, Wii or just goof around with the boys and girls that are her friends.
Yes! So very much this! We look at DS (now 7) and see a normal, socially outgoing little kid most of the time who likes to play tag with his friends and wrestle with his parents. We have remind ourselves that most kids do not, when given the choice to watch Netflix, watch an entire season of Cosmos in a few days and remember it all the following week.
