Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources A question about the Deborah Ruf book.

I just put it on hold at the library. My 5yo seems advanced, but I haven't had her tested. Is the book helpful for someone whose child hasn't been tested, and won't be anytime soon?

Do you think you can honestly get an idea about level of giftedness without formal testing? The reason I ask is because DD is moving through material quickly, and has much broader comprehension than I expected. I'm trying to understand her better, since I'm her teacher (we homeschool).

I think that it will help you. It has lots of anecdotal evidence and examples.

I'd read several books long before I even considered having our son tested. Ruf's characteristics were a great help to us along with similar charts from other authors. As a result, we were quite certain that our son fell squarely into MG-HG territory.

I even found myself skipping sections on EG-PG, thinking that that crazy stuff couldn't possibly apply to us. Nope, not our son. No way. I even proudly wore the t-shirt, "Parent's estimate of giftedness is usually correct."

Turns out -- both through subsequent testing and real-life performance -- that we'd been underestimating him all along.

I would certainly encourage more reading for you as you'll develop a better understanding of your child's abilities. But don't narrow your scope of reading like I did -- instead, read everything, even if you don't think it directly applies to you.

The "resources" forum here is superb. And it's also tough to beat the massive collection of articles over at Hoagies'.

Thank you both. I got the book and am reading through it. The anecdotes are actually very helpful so far. I see many similarities with both DDs.

Ruf's book is the one that helped me get over my GT denial. Like Dandy, I thought DS8 (age 6 when I started this journey) was MG-HG, tops. Ruf's book threw all that into doubt and led to testing for us beyond what the school offered. It's a good place to start. It has its critics, and their criticisms aren't wrong. It is very anecdotal, it's probably a self-selected group she's studying, etc. But the book has its place in the process, I think. Sometimes it's what a person needs. It helped me more than any other book I've read.

Dandy: I agree with the t-shirt. I definitely think parents are nearly always right if they think that their kids are gifted.

But...I think parents are often surprised by the level of GTness. That happens a lot, especially if the family is a GT one. A child who is more GT than the family norm may register as only MG, when in fact the family norm *starts* at MG-HG (or higher), and the child in question is beyond that. When your whole frame of reference is skewed, you're bound to be off!

So your shirt's not wrong, I don't think. It's just not talking about levels. We parents do tend to be pretty hopeless at gauging that!

Is the book helpful with 6 and 9 year olds? How?

I went thru the levels of gifted on the website and I couldn't remember what my child did and when?

It did bring back one memory- my DS9 as an infant would sit thru whole Dr. Suess books. I remember my mother inlaw thinking it was strange to take a baby to the library to read books. He loved doing this.

I was surprized when my daughter was born and she didn't do this. It took longer for that interest.

It was helpful for me, but the baby book was certainly handy. I had thought DS8 was a level 3...until I pulled out the actual dates when he did things...

The use of early milestones is one of the criticisms of Ruf's work, BTW. But there is plenty in there that isn't so early, too.

It's just one more way to tell what's going on, and I tend to think that we need all the tools we can get. If it isn't helpful to you, try something else.

There is much more than the early indicators of giftedness in Ruf's book. She has chapters describing each of the levels, and then anecdotes in sections from birth to age nine and older. She talks about different education options in general, through college, and by level of giftedness. I think it's a great overview of gifted issues.

I also remember reading the book and realizing "hey, that was me." It helped me to remember all the unpleasant things, like reading ahead in the book and sitting bored in class, waiting for everyone else to catch up. It helped me to know what I wanted to avoid for my DS. And I'm a tad older than 9...

I enjoyed the book thoroughly, especially the educational guidance near the end. It was just what I was looking for.

I saved dd's baby info, and comparing when she reached milestones with some of the higher level kids is a bit shocking. Not to mention the fact that some of them sounded eerily similar to DD as an infant/toddler.

I can't imagine her IQ being the same, so I'll just have to wait until we can have her tested.

Anyway, I'm glad I read it. Any other book recommendations? (I'll look through Hoagies again.)

This is a great thought and really clarified a few ideas that have been tumbling around in my head. Thanks!