Educators generally understand intellectual giftedness in childhood as advanced capacities for cognitive functioning that are significantly ahead of age norms, including the early development of a capacity for abstract and higher order thinking (N. M. Robinson, 2008). Although heredity is significant in giftedness, environment also plays a role; and both are necessary and complementary factors in the development of giftedness (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Bundy, 2001; Tannenbaum, 2003). Limited evidence, including evidence on the early childhood years, indicates that the parents of gifted children provide stimulating home environments and interactions that can promote gifted development (Fowler, 1981; Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, & Guerin, 1994; Perleth, Lehwald, & Browder, 1993; N. M. Robinson, 1993; N. M. Robinson, Lanzi, Weinberg, Ramey, & Ramey, 2002). Fowler argued that advanced development that is accompanied by intensive caregiver stimulation in early childhood can lead to a cognitive "critical mass," so that by school entry these children "reach a cognitive threshold ... not ordinarily attained at any age by most children" (p. 360). Some authors have proposed a bidirectional process of mutual responsiveness, whereby young gifted children elicit high levels of stimulation from their parents (Gottftied et al., 1994; Moss, 1990; N. M. Robinson, 1993), and some case study research supports that idea (Harrison, 2004; Lewis & Michalson, 1985). We know little, however, about the specific nature of parental interactions with their young gifted children, particularly in the infant and toddler periods, and how these interactions may promote advanced thinking. This gap in our knowledge is a significant one, because the first years of life are a crucial period for laying the foundations of subsequent intellectual development.
