I never said precocious necessarily meant anything. And there's a reason I used the conjunctive "and" in "abnormalities and handicapped general intelligence", though I could have worded it better.
And I never said "early reader", I said "independently ... too early". Both qualifiers were intentional and important; in particular, I very much intended "too" to be non-specific.
And you're wrong about behaviors like hyperlexia, and wrong precisely in a way that proves my point. Hyperlexia also strongly correlates with obsessions with letters and numbers, but they're distinct phenomena. The latter is an even stronger indicator of autism, but many times hyperlexia is what both parents and others will take notice of first. (Which is a very important point--for this and other reasons, a young child that is both hyperlexic and shows obsessive traits, only the former is likely to be discussed in anecdotes about children with surprising abilities.)
My whole point was that for many of the examples and anecdotes you stumble across on the internet and in discussion, especially the more extreme ones, keep in mind that the children may have other, debilitating developmental abnormalities. Of course, it would be better if these stories received little or no interest or if people didn't naturally internalize these anecdotes in a way that leads to anxiety in their personal lives; but that's not how the majority of people naturally behave.
Regarding the alleged condescension, I possess professionally diagnosed traits that make me "gifted" in many senses of that word, including the euphemistic sense. What I find condescending is how people use "gifted" to elide the complex reality, rather than to put in the effort to discuss things in more concrete terms (i.e. with greater specificity and context), which is really the only way to both avoid prejudice and misunderstanding while being honest and respectful.
And I never said "early reader", I said "independently ... too early". Both qualifiers were intentional and important; in particular, I very much intended "too" to be non-specific.
And you're wrong about behaviors like hyperlexia, and wrong precisely in a way that proves my point. Hyperlexia also strongly correlates with obsessions with letters and numbers, but they're distinct phenomena. The latter is an even stronger indicator of autism, but many times hyperlexia is what both parents and others will take notice of first. (Which is a very important point--for this and other reasons, a young child that is both hyperlexic and shows obsessive traits, only the former is likely to be discussed in anecdotes about children with surprising abilities.)
My whole point was that for many of the examples and anecdotes you stumble across on the internet and in discussion, especially the more extreme ones, keep in mind that the children may have other, debilitating developmental abnormalities. Of course, it would be better if these stories received little or no interest or if people didn't naturally internalize these anecdotes in a way that leads to anxiety in their personal lives; but that's not how the majority of people naturally behave.
Regarding the alleged condescension, I possess professionally diagnosed traits that make me "gifted" in many senses of that word, including the euphemistic sense. What I find condescending is how people use "gifted" to elide the complex reality, rather than to put in the effort to discuss things in more concrete terms (i.e. with greater specificity and context), which is really the only way to both avoid prejudice and misunderstanding while being honest and respectful.