According to both the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Search Criteria and the Summer Institute for the Gifted, a gifted child is one who has "scored at the 95th percentile or above in at least one of the major content areas or ability sections of a nationally-normed standardized test or at the highest performance level on a state test administered by their schools."

Approved tests include those given by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB), including the CPT 4 and the Wechsler series, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, and the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT).

In New York City, however, a child (or, more accurately, a parent) who wishes to qualify for their local public schools’ Gifted & Talented program, must score above the 90th percentile on the OLSAT and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA).  Those seeking a lottery application to the three citywide G&T schools, Anderson, NEST and TAG, must score at or above the 97th percentile.

Hunter College Elementary School, which has been educating academically precocious children since 1941 outside the auspices of the Department of Education, requires the Stanford-Binet, Fifth Edition  test and, for the 2009 admission season, only invited children who scored above the 98.5 percentile for their second round interviews.

NYC private schools require the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), Third Edition.

Parents wishing to cover all the bases tend to have their offspring take a hat trick of tests during a given Kindergarten Admissions Season.

As a result, due to the whims and moods of a four year old, it is possible for the same New York City child to be gifted by the standards of one school system, but not another.

The term "gifted," itself, is a rather fluid one.  Some scales deem "gifted" to begin at the IQ score of 115, which is the 84th percentile, many private and public schools across the country set the bar at the 127 mark (96th percentile), while still other organizations place it at 130 (98th percentile).

With so many divergent opinions, for the purposes of this column, the gifted children and issues discussed will be those of the Moderately Gifted, a.k.a. those whose tested IQs fall between 125 and 144, or approximately 1 out of every 20 students.

Those with IQs above 145 (1 in 1000; 99.9th percentile), known as the Highly Gifted, and above 160 (1 in 1,000,000; 99.99th percentile), the Profoundly Gifted, are much rarer and face an entirely different set of special needs.