I think in some cases you can. And this is just based on my own experiences. I was a bright kid, identified as gifted, and I know my mom said others began to comment when I was about 4 how different I was, and it was suggested by several people including teachers from a local gifted program to have me tested when I was old enough for the gifted program when I was this age.
With DD, she was speaking several hundred words by 1 and combining the words into simple sentences. By 2, she was speaking on the level of a 5 year old, and by 2 and 1/2 had taught herself to read simple books. She started spontaneouly doing addition and subtraction in her head around this time 2. It is commented everywhere we go by anyone who hears her. She was given some placement tests by the school my mom works for right before she turned 3 and she tested on a first and second grade level across the board on all subjects.
She seems to learn by osmossis...hear it once in her enviroment, knows it, and applies it even months later in new situations. She has been identified as profoudly gifted by 2 peds, an educational specialist, and the gt coordinator at my mom's school. She was tested and ceilinged out at 160 on the PPVT and had a verbal age equivilent of 13 at 3 years 0 months old.
i truely don't thinks she will show any sign of stopping being so far ahead. As for early milestones, she really did not have any. She was behind or on target on all things until a year except for verbal when she said her first word at 5.5 months. At about 10 months, it was like someone flipped a switch verbally LOL....sometimes I wish I could shut it off lOL. I don't believe early milestone neccssarily always correlate to giftedness, but I do think that when a child spontaneously teaches themself to read, do math, etc....that is when you can start putting more weight on those signs. Just my 2 cents worth LOL.
