I'm still struggling with this as it seems so unbelievable what 3, 4 or 5 year old should be able to do, really? I'm sure a lot these are made so that the parents can feel good about the kids.
Generally the purpose of these lists is to help identify children who are lagging behind to see if they need to get therapy or other help. The purpose is not to make parents "feel good" or to say it is unbelievable if a child can do more than what is listed as a milestone for their age. I'm sure there is no ill intent but when these sorts of threads sometimes come up on gifted lists it seems like a real slam against the many parents who have been in the situation of looking at these lists and realizing their kid might be in trouble. And, to be clear that can include gifted kids.
Surely normal child can learn colors, body parts, alphabets and shapes early if you tell them these. All the 2 year olds that have have met here (not that many) know colors and body parts and have probably known those for a while. I thought it is normal for a child to learn these things while you are learning to talk.
Kids are all different in what categories of information are of particular importance to them. I've known very gifted preschoolers who didn't know the names of colors but could tell you the names of all sorts of dinosaurs (or whatever was important to them.)
Obviously some children have much more exposure to academic concepts. Also, some parents feel more like it is a mission to make sure the child is learning so weave it into conversations and other parents figure that kids will simply learn it without needing to artificially bring it into conversations. I remember a friend asking her daughter, "do you want one cookie or two cookies?" Duh!
