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Levels of Giftedness
How Smart Is My Child?
By Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D.
Level Two
- These bright children love looking at books and being read to, even turning pages without ripping them, by 15 months. Some shout out the name of familiar stores as you drive past.
- Many of these children know lots of letters by 18 months and colors by 20 months, and between ages 3 and 4, they count small groups of objects, print some letters and numbers and they very likely drive their parents crazy with all their questions.
- They'll sit for what seems like hours as you read advanced-level books, especially fiction and fantasy, to them, but they require a bit less of your time by age 6 because most of them read for pleasure and information on their own by then.
- Level Two children can find only one or two others in their classroom who are as advanced as they are, which starts to make it hard to find good friends.
Level Three
- They're born wide-eyed and alert, looking around the room, reacting to noises, voices, faces.
- They know what adults are telling or asking them by 6 months. You say a toy, pet or another person, and they will look for it.
- Everything Level Two children do by 15 months, these kids do by 10 to 12 months, and they can get family members to do what they want before they are actually talking.
- By 2 years, many like 35-plus-piece puzzles, memorize favorite books and know the entire alphabet – in or out of order!
- By 3 years old, they talk contantly and skip count, count backwards and do simple adding and subtracting because they like to. They love to print letters and numbers, too.