However, I do find myself questioning the veracity of the claims of some posters (again on other boards) who present their kids as HG+ or PG when the parent makes regular errors in writing. Things such as "rediculous" and tons of other misspellings that are not likely due to typos, grammatical errors such as "me and him have...," misuse of homophones ("there" used over and over for "they're"), etc.
I had to smile at this post because if you ever met my mother or better put her writing you'd never guess that I was tested gifted as a kid (and even had an ACT score in middle school that passed the Davidson cut-off). My mother's writing is barely legible and she is probably one of the worse spellers I have ever met (including non-native English speakers that I have met!). It's also painfully slow for her to read a book. I've wondered at times if she has a learning disability but I think she might just be really, really visual spatial (she's very good at math/art). She also comes from a family of very high achieving mathematicians.
My dad, on the other hand, is a former English teacher who used to send articles back and forth with my grandma that they thought were so funny because of the typos in them.
I'm somewhere in between. A bad speller who ended up in a math related field but at least knows how to write a paper. However, I think if people just met my mom they would never think I was gifted.
I should also say, while my father is very smart (no clue if he's gifted or not but he would make and excellent contestant on jeopardy!), no matter how many times I explain my work to him he doesn't get it. But my mom, who only had a few basic college classes, gets it right away.
Because of that I really try and take what others say at face value. And even if they are overestimating their child's worth, what does it matter in the long run? Maybe some of the answers will help them or at least help someone else reading the post. DD's never been tested and, while she has the genes for it, it doesn't guarantee anything, but yet I've still have found numerous posts very useful for me here!
