Getting the gifted an appropriate education

As many parents of gifted children have found out, getting a gifted child the education they need is often a difficult matter. Schools stonewall. Teachers prove deaf. No-one wants to know. If they do listen, barriers are put up. The "system" often does not want to make an exception. In the midst of all this, the gifted child suffers - from boredom, lack of stimulation, frustrated development and, perhaps, the gradual loss and submergence of their gifts as they lose the will to fight on. It is a sad and all too common occurrence.

Last year we tried speaking to the Vice-Principal of Ainan's school in an effort to secure some sort of assistance with educating him: access to a lab and the like. Nothing came of the conversation, except the statement that the barriers in place were immovable. We had done what we could and didn't try again.

This year, Ainan's school has a new Principal. By chance, his Principal sat down recently and had a chat with Ainan. She asked him about what his interests were. The topic of Science came up and he told her of his interest in Chemistry. They began to talk about it and, in the course of conversation, he drew her a periodic table, up to element 103, from memory, for her. This rather surprised her. The conversation expanded and he began to draw chemical structures on paper. Another teacher came in - a teacher who used to be the best Chemistry student in her school. The conversation broadened out, Ainan wrote chemical equations for her, to illustrate the conversation. By the end of this conversation, Ainan had achieved what a visit from his parents to the Vice-Principal last year could not: a conviction in the school staff that something must be done for Ainan.

We received a phonecall from the Principal in which she told us of the conversation with Ainan and her astonishment at him. She then voiced various ideas about how she might help him receive a more appropriate education. I was buzzing with happiness by the end of the conversation for, in all this time, we have been labouring alone on Ainan's behalf, without the assistance of anyone. Perhaps now things will change and doors will begin to open for Ainan.

It is premature to speak of her suggestions - but if any come off, I will report them here. If any of them come to light, Ainan will be in a much better position to develop his gifts according to his nature and needs. One of her ideas, in particular, is very exciting: something highly appropriate, which has never been done before, in Singapore - but I will only speak of it if it happens.

A chance conversation with the right person - his Principal - may finally allow Ainan to flourish. Let us hope so.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and one month, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

Old age in the eyes of one young

Tiarnan knows what old age is - yet he is only eleven months old.

We have a puppet from the former Czech Republic, in the form of a "wizard". It looks a rather Gandalf-like figure, with a long grey beard and long grey hair.

Recently, Tiarnan looked at this puppet, on the wall, and said: "Atto". Now, this is the Malay word for grandfather - and is the term used to describe his own grandfather, on his mother's side, rather than a name. His grandfather does not have long grey hair - he has short hair, much of which is still dark, with quite a few streaks of silver. Nor does he have a long, grey beard - in fact, he is clean shaven and neatly presented. Furthermore, the puppet is Caucasian in appearance and Atto is Malay, so physically they are quite different. Yet, it was clear from his remark that Tiarnan saw "atto-like" qualities in the puppet. He had recognized that both his grandfather and the puppet looked old (at least compared to him, I suppose - since his grandfathers - both - are in pretty good condition!)

This is one of the qualities that Tiarnan shows already in his thinking: recognizing similarity and commonality - and being able to categorize a new phenomenon alongside others already known. I think it is an important thinking skill in coming to understand how the world is, what it is and how it works.

I wonder what I look like to him?

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and two months, and Fintan, three, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, intelligence, IQ, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children, in general. Thanks.)

I can't update the guide to scientific child prodigy

Unfortunately, at present, I can't update the guide to Scientific Child Prodigy, owing to odd behaviour of my blogger interface: whenever I try to edit a post, that post's contents is erased from my screen. Thus I can't add an entry to the guide: it vanishes if I try. Please be patient while I try to sort this out. I have written to Google about it and hope to get a resolution sometime - though I imagine that could be quite a while. In the meantime, I would like to apologize for any difficulty you might have navigating the site as a result. Thanks.

The new longest blog reader

On January 9th, a reader from New South Wales read twenty-nine pages of this blog over a two hour forty one minute and forty four second interval. That makes this "reader from Kareela (the place in New South Wales)" the Gold Medallist for blog reading.

It is good to observe that, as I write more, over the months, new visitors find more to enjoy and so spend longer reading. No doubt this time record will creep up, therefore, over time. But for now, New South Wales is home to the most attentive reader of all. Thanks for your interest.

(If you would like to read about my gifted children, including scientific child prodigy, Ainan Celeste Cawley, aged seven years and one month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

A prodigy and his inner world

We all, in a trivial sense, inhabit a world of our own. However, in a very real sense, Ainan inhabits a world of his own. By this I mean, that his focus on his own thought is so intense, at times, that the outer world makes no impression on him. This is sometimes evident in conversation. One might be talking about something to him, and he will remain silent, until after some interval, he comes out with what he has been thinking about: almost always something scientific, either chemical or physical, and usually very detailed, or profound, and often surprising.

What I have found characteristic of this state is that it cannot be perturbed. Nothing can distract Ainan from his own train of thought. I might be trying to tell him something scientific, which I think might interest him - but, if he has already started his own train of thought, nothing can take him away from that. So, a conversation when he is in this frame of mind is a very one-sided affair - or should I say, it has two sides that don't meet: his and mine. When he has decided upon an inner topic, that line of thought will continue despite whatever happens in the outer world. At times, he will throw out a conclusion or a remark which makes it clear that he has made further progress in his line of thought. The outer world provides no interruption to him at all.

This capacity for deep concentration on one's own thinking is characteristic of many adult geniuses of history. It is a necessary prerequisite for solving difficult or complex problems that one should be able to focus on them to the exclusion of all else. This tendency in those children who might one day be geniuses, should be understood. It is not rudeness that leads such a child to tune an adult out - it is their inner focus on the subjects of their interest - the chosen topics of their present thought. When the reverie is over, the child will attend to whatever it is that you wish them to attend to - but while the reverie persists, it should be allowed to continue uninterrupted, after all what is the child doing but what any parent might wish them to do: thinking hard on something.

So, when Ainan takes it upon himself to think of some scientific matter, even if I have urgent need to communicate something to him, I try to give him the space and time to think through whatever it is that he ponders. I understand that this tendency is one of the basic skills of any genius, in any discipline - and it should be allowed to grow in peace.

At school, such an inner focus, might look like "dreaminess" to an uninformed teacher who does not know the child well - and might lead to various forms of punishment to attempt to "shake the child out of it". That is a big mistake. If a child displays this characteristic it is probable that they have found something much more interesting to think about than the contents of the lesson. My own feeling is that they should be left to think it through, particularly if they have shown themselves more than able to cope with the curriculum as it is.

So, if you have a child who is a deep thinker - let them be. They are practising one of the fundamental skills of all geniuses, everywhere. Maybe, one day, such a child might grow up to be an adult genius, rethinking the world in their wake.

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and one month, a scientific child prodigy, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks)

Tiarnan's concern for his grandmother

Tiarnan is eleven months old. Yet, at times, he shows a sophisticated social understanding.

Yesterday, he saw his mother and grandmother talking at length. His grandmother was standing up. Seeing this, he approached her and took her hand, and said: "Dudok" which is Malay for "Sit down."

Two things were evident from this incident. Firstly, Tiarnan understood that his grandmother might be tired standing up - and was concerned for her. Secondly, he chose to use his grandmother's first language (which is not his own first tongue), knowing that she is more familiar with that, than with English, although she does speak English, too. As an act of social judgement, it showed quite a lot of finesse to expect from such a little boy.

With luck Tiarnan will grow into a socially sensitive young man - for he is already showing good signs. Carry on Tiarnan!

Is a big family bad for IQ?

A century of studies on family size and IQ have consistently come up with an unnerving conclusion: on average, across populations, (rather than individual families, who may be exceptional), a big family, means a lower average IQ of each family member. This is not one, isolated study showing this: there are innumerable studies over a century.

Now, what is the reason for this correlation? There are two obvious possibilities. One is that as the family size increases, the parents have less time to give attention to individual children, less money to pay for education and, therefore, the greater the number of children, the less stimulation each child receives. The other possibility is that large families are the product of low IQ parents, of lower social economic class - and indicate differential inheritance, rather than a difference caused by family size, per se.

Traditionally, larger families HAVE been the product of lower socioeconomic classes - and so these studies may be reflecting differences of income and educational opportunity rather than an effect of family size.

On the other hand, as I pointed out in my earlier post, "On being a father of three", http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2007/01/on-being-father-of-three.html, having a larger family does mean less time to apportion to each child, with probable consequences for their intellectual growth.

So, given this, what is one to do with regards to family size? I have three children and would like more - so in this I have joined the 28 per cent of American parents with three or more children. A recent report stated that the nature of these parents is changing: many more of them are from wealthier, better educated families than before. This could be the beginning of a good trend, therefore - of brighter parents, having more children. Are these families condemning their children to dullness? I don't think so. I think the genetic effects are stronger than the environmental and will still allow their children to be bright. Why do I think this? Well as I pointed out in an earlier post on Genius IQ and Genetic Inheritance, http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/genius-iq-and-genetic-inheritance.html, the IQ of parents correlates 0.8 with the adult IQ of their children. That argues a strong role for their genes, and a much smaller role for the environment provided.

If you have a gifted child, it is likely that you could have another if you chose. That your family is getting bigger and your attention would be diluted among more children is probably a smaller factor than the fact that you already have what it takes to make a gifted child, genetically.

Then there is the matter of chance. Which genes a child inherits is random: they will get a selection of half the genes of each parent. Anything can happen in that process - giving a spectrum of results. Yet, if you have more children, you also have more of a chance that one of them will get the right mix of genes and turn out to be gifted - if that is what you want in your child.

It is a difficult matter, family size, for there is no denying that, as the family gets bigger that there is a greater division of attention, time and money. It is, I feel, up to each individual to judge the weight of each of the issues and decide the question: just how big do you want your family to be?

I know the answer for me: at least one more: after three boys, it would be nice to have a girl, too!

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and one month, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks)

The attitudes of a young prodigy

One of the things that is noticeable about Ainan is his attitude to the subjects of his interest. He is quite able to play as a child, running around, laughing and generally enjoying himself but, when it comes to the matters of the mind, his demeanour changes and becomes incredibly earnest. He speaks of his scientific interests, ideas and work with such profound intensity and seriousness - his eyes focus on one, and hold the gaze as long as it takes to explain what concerns him.

When he speaks like this, I feel that I am in the presence of an adult scientist. The thinking is very logical, but imaginative, too - and ever so solid. His demeanour is very serious and mature and all hint of the child seems to have been tucked away when he speaks in this way.

I think that this describes a very real division in him: he is both child and man. A child in the need to play and be a kid; an adult in his scientific mind - and the way he explores the scientific world. This is a very great difference between a child prodigy and an adult professional. They may be both alike in ability in the area of interest - though the child may be the more imaginative - but where they differ is in the emotional arena - the child prodigy is still a child, in many ways - and deserves therefore to be treated with the gentleness of any child, even if they are entering the adult world of their particular interest. Such a child may perform well in that adult arena, but should also be accorded the allowances given to any child: to do otherwise would be to be unfair on them.

It is noticeable that Ainan's serious demeanour predominates, in that he is frequently very sobre - but then he has periods of relaxation in which this attitude disperses, to be replaced by one of playfulness. He inhabits two worlds: the adult world, with his science, and the child's world with his brothers and friends. I am thankful that he can navigate both successfully.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and one month, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children, in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan and the "animals"

Tiarnan is eleven months old but, in that short time, he seems to have picked up quite a bit of general knowledge.

Yesterday, Syahidah, his mother, drew on his elder brother's face, with make up: it was an animal face.

On seeing Fintan's made up face, Tiarnan said: "Tiger". Spot on.

Later in the day, as Fintan wore a different set of make up, Tiarnan said: "Dog", on seeing him. Again, he got it right.

I found it interesting that he could see the representation of the animal face in a few lines of make up - and understand what was meant by those lines. That is the beginnings of understanding of art.

(If you would like to read more about Tiarnan and his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, and Fintan, three, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, intelligence, IQ, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)