In our small town people do notice my 9 year old son's giftedness because he is very articulate and his intelligence shows in his speech and the comments and jokes he likes to make about what is currently happening in the news. We have been asked more than once by people in town when we would let him go to college. They also ask me what grade levels he is "really" working at when I tell them he would be in fourth grade by age.
His musical theater teacher noticed the giftedness when he was four and this is why she gave him several hundred words of script to memorize in addition to the songs he had to learn from "Babes in Arms." I don't think the bright four year olds that are currently in our group would be able to do this.
It is only when he has to do physical activities where he is not able to talk that people don't see the giftedness. He is definitely not physically gifted. It is hard for him when the choreographer and acting teacher tell him they think he is not trying when he is in fact trying very hard, but having to compensate for a mild physical differences for which he has never had any kind of physical or occupational therapy.
