I had the privilege to meet with Susan Assouline (one of the authors of the Iowa Acceleration Scale) once and asked the very same question - should I wait till he gives trouble in school or should I advocate from Day 1? She didn't have a ready reply although she favoured waiting, since the child needed time to adjust to so many aspects of school.
In our case, I had spoken to the school/gifted officer before he formally entered elementary school. DS was already not fitting into kindy, and I was hoping that with a differentiated programme, he'd be fine. It didn't turn out that way, but that's another story. In retrospect, speaking up early was good for us in that his teacher looked out for him and tried to get to understand him better. I think she actually "gets" him.
I really don't know if he would have been spotted on his own. His kindy teachers were in 2 camps - those who really liked him and were dazzled by his abilities, and those who really loathed him and thought he was too outspoken. Bizarre but true!
