The Sunday Times, Singapore: read it tomorrow

The Sunday Times (of the Straits Times) are running another article on Ainan and the Cawley family tomorrow.

Obviously, I don't know what they are going to say - but I do know that the article will carry more depth than the ones that have already appeared in the Singaporean press. So, if you are interested in learning more of the Ainan story rush out and get yourself a copy of The Sunday Times, tomorrow.

I understand that we are probably to be found in the main section of the newspaper, somewhere.

Happy reading!

The effect of fame on customer service

Something odd but sweet happened today.

My wife and I were in a restaurant. The server was a young man of about eighteen. He clearly recognized my wife and was all smiles. She requested that a drink of water be brought to the table since we were in a hurry and she wanted something to cool her tea. He brought it without delay. What was both surprising and touching was what we saw as he set the cup down on the table. His hands were shaking with nervousness, the water sloshing in the cup.

Though my wife is a pretty woman, she had never before managed to make a man shake with nervousness! How funny this is all this.

Tiarnan tells mummy how he feels

Yesterday, Syahidah was playing with Fintan and Tiarnan. She looked at Fintan and said: "I love you", to him.

Tiarnan observed this, tilted his head up at his mother and said to her: "I love you".

This recalls the time Tiarnan said as much to me, many months ago...but it was nice to hear it on his lips, for his mother.

There is a warmth in Tiarnan, fourteen months, that is heartening to see: he is a passionate, emotional baby who responds with his heart to the world. In many ways, that is more delightful to see than any measure of intelligence is: for is not goodness of the heart what brings blessings to every life?

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, fourteen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and four 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, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Reactions to Ainan in Singapore

As you will know, if you have read recent posts, Ainan, 7, has been featured in many Singaporean media, recently, two of them on the front page. What reactions has this provoked in people, here?

Well, the first signs of something different was when he went out with his mother. People pointed at him and cries of: "Are you Ainan?" could be heard. There was a general sense of delight at having met him.

At school, Ainan was cheered by the whole school at assembly. I think he was deeply touched by it all, being a sensitive boy, who picks up on the warmth surrounding him. A trip to the canteen, became a scene of much congratulation, as fellow pupils in his primary school approached to say that they had seen him in the papers.

If there is one word to describe the reaction so far it is: "embraced". Ainan has been embraced by those around him...appreciated, welcomed, well-received.

I hope it continues.

Three cheers for Ainan! Hip hip Hooray!

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

Tiarnan invents a new way to climb

Yesterday, Tiarnan, fourteen months, did something I have never heard a baby doing. He walked up the stairs backwards.

He started at the bottom, and reversed up two flights of stairs, clearly enjoying himself throughout until he got to the top.

This showed me something interesting about his motor skills: he does not need to see where he is going, anymore, to be surefooted - he has that unconscious, internal sense of where his limbs are and does not seem to need the constant feedback of vision that a young baby normally needs.

He didn't miss a step. He didn't stumble and he didn't fall - he just climbed backwards all the way up to the top. He did so quite quickly too.

In this action, I see Tiarnan's creative imagination at work - always seeking a new way to do an old thing; or a new way to do something he has never done before. Many children, having learnt to conquer the stairs, for instance, would, thereafter use the same method each time. Tiarnan is different: he has a need to experiment, to try a variation or find a new theme. It is in little things like this that a baby reveals their creative identity. If your baby is always trying to do things in new ways, then that baby is a creative child, who could and should grow up to be a creative adult.

I wonder what led Tiarnan to try this: what wondering thought did he have to see what it would be like to do so?

What a curious boy.

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

Front page news, Singapore

Ainan, 7, is front page news today in Singapore. It is quite surreal to see our faces peering from the front cover of the leading dailies in Singapore.

Today, Ainan and parents are on the front cover of the Straits Times, the leading English daily, and the front cover of Berita Harian, the leading Malay daily. Yesterday, Ainan appeared in Shin Min, a leading Chinese evening daily paper. I was also heard on the radio, 95.8 FM, a Chinese channel discussing Ainan.

I wonder how people here are going to react. More later.

Child prodigies and the media

Interviews with the press can be difficult at any age, but how much more difficult is it when the interviewee is a child of seven?

Yesterday, I had a chance to find out. A couple of journalists came to see Ainan, to have a word with him and get a story out of him. Ainan received the first one with a quiet welcome and went along with his requests for photographs. He posed as required and was quite co-operative. All went well with that one. It is the second, however, that showed how careful one must be to approach a child prodigy in the right way.

I was asked to speak on tape, for a radio broadcast, about Ainan. I did so. The reporter was a general reporter, rather than a science reporter and so matters were kept non-technical. This was fine for me...but for Ainan it wasn't the best approach. When asked general questions, he wouldn't answer. In this I see a lot of shyness, at work. He didn't have to speak to the other journalist, for that one only wanted photographs. This one wanted speech.

"So, Ainan what do you find interesting about Science and Chemistry?"

A long silence as the tape listened to nothing.

I knew what to do:

"So, Ainan what is special about fullerenes?"

"They have a lot of delocalized electrons..."

"And what does this do?"

"They hold it together..."

Only on science itself, would he speak.

He busied himself with bashing the hell out of something in a metal box. From my perspective I could see that he appeared to be pulverizing something. I am not sure she could see that.

She tried to engage him:

"So what are you doing there?"

Another long silence.

"OK...don't force him." The journalist said - and left the matter alone.

I pointed to my son, Ainan, as he bashed away, ignoring her and said: "He is always experimenting with things."

I don't know whether she really understood that he was engaged in some kind of experiment. He always is. I know him well and even if I don't understand why he is doing something, I know enough to know that it is ALWAYS going to be part of an experiment he has in mind.

She left, shortly, without the quotes she needed for a full interview with Ainan.

After she had gone, I asked Ainan about his bashing:

"So what are you doing?"

He looked up, then, as if suddenly freed of a burden and able to speak once more and informed me, quietly: "I am making a non-Newtonian fluid."

That quietened me. Why didn't he say that to her?

Ainan is concealed from the gaze of strangers. In their presence he will not "perform". It is only when they are gone that he relaxes and becomes himself. In this way, he may prove difficult to pin-down, to observe, or capture. It is my duty therefore, to paint a portrait of him - for others may find him less accessible.

It was funny in a way. She probably thought he was being childish, bashing away at a box, for reasons that seemed utterly trivial - but what was he engaged in: a synthetic experiment, to make a material with a particular property.

Later on, he showed me the material. He had indeed made a "non-Newtonian fluid".

Well done, my elusive boy.

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

Ainan walks on water - an experiment

Ainan doesn't know about Jesus Christ. He doesn't know much about any religion, in fact. That part of his education has been omitted for we live in a mixed environment: which religion should he learn of, when he lives between alternatives?

For now, he has not been strongly immersed in any of the religions. He knows of them. Yet, he does not know them explicitly or deeply. In some ways, his scientific bent precludes much inquiry into the matter, for he takes a scientific view on all things.

Thus, Ainan doesn't know about the miracles of Jesus. He hasn't heard the stories told by christians everywhere of the loaves and fish feeding the five thousand; of the water turned to wine; or of Jesus Christ walking on water.

It was funny therefore, that Ainan independently set himself the challenge of walking on water, on Sunday, at the pool. He didn't know that this was a biblical thing to do. He didn't know it had religious overtones reminiscent of Jesus. Yet, he tried to walk on water.

Being Ainan, he adopted a scientific approach. Firstly, he took two pieces of styrofoam that he had found from some box and placed one on each foot. Then he stepped into the pool. He sank - but with a noticeable slowing. He noted this and decided to test it further. He jumped into the pool without the foam and sank quickly to the bottom. Then he tried it again, holding a piece of styrofoam in each hand. He sank to the bottom again, but was noticeably slower in doing so. He remarked on this.

Finally, he took a large float of the kind used by trainee swimmers and stepped onto it. Then he jumped into the water. He didn't sink to the bottom. His descent stopped at just below his shoulders and there he floated in the water, head above the surface, balanced on the board (quite a neat physical feat that).

So, in a limited sense, Ainan succeeded. He didn't exactly walk on water, but he didn't sink either. He was supported from below and didn't submerge.

What I found interesting about this is the precedents to the situation. Leonardo Da Vinci also tried this, unknown to Ainan. He invented shoes that would allow one to walk on water (if memory serves me right). His shoes were impractical - less so, in some ways, than what Ainan did.

The difference between Ainan and Leonardo Da Vinci, is that Da Vinci would have known about Jesus Christ. Ainan didn't. So, in a very real sense, his experiment was a creative act, from Ainan's knowledge perspective.

Anyway, it was fun to watch - especially when he half-succeeded, spookily balanced in the water.

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

Fintan's perspective on the adult world

Every morning I see Fintan up and about. He is the second earliest riser in the family, needing to do so, to get ready for school. I am the earliest.

Every morning he asks me the same question, perhaps hoping for a different answer, as I stand by the door saying goodbye:

"Where are you going Daddy?"

"To work." I say, ritually.

Today, Fintan's response was a little different. "Again?" He cried, aghast. It was as if his tone had said: haven't you done that already?

There was no reply to that. After all, he had fully captured how I sometimes feel!

I left for work. Again.

Ravaglia on American education and the gifted

Raymond Ravaglia is the Deputy Director of the Stanford University, EPGY (the Education Program for Gifted Youth) and recently he gave a talk in Singapore.

One of the themes he addressed, briefly, was the state of American education. He summarized the style of American education by stating that, generally, American classes are pitched to "to the left of the distribution"...by which he meant the Bell Curve, of IQ distributions. He said that this was done so that those "to the left" were not left behind. This worked in keeping those of lower IQs happy but it had an unfortunate side effect: those to the right of the distribution - the ones for whom EPGY was conceived - would tend to be bored by American education.

Thus, EPGY is pitched to the right of the distribution. It is deliberately aimed at stimulating some of the brightest students. This could have the unfortunate consequence that some on the EPGY (he didn't say it, but seemed to mean those who had just scraped into the courses) might be left out a bit, but he did say that the course instructors did generally manage to keep all-comers happy. Yet, he did make it clear that the type of pitch of material at EPGY was very different to what would be expected in a standard American classroom.

He addressed this point quickly and in passing, but I felt it to be one of the more important things that he said: this pitch to the left of the Bell Curve was one of the big failings in American education - for it ensured that ALL gifted children would be left out in the classroom. There is something not quite right in that. Are not the gifted an important intellectual constituency to be nurtured and groomed to become the best that they may? I would have thought so, but it seems that American education has overlooked this and only in exceptional cases is the matter of the education of the gifted properly addressed.

America is the world's leading nation - but how much longer can it be, if the needs of its most gifted are neglected? Your thoughts please.

Tiarnan reminisces about his baby times

Tiarnan is now thirteen months old. This event happened when he was twelve months old.

He had been walking for several months, including up and down stairs and was quite comfortable on his feet. This day, however, he looked at the floor and got down on his knees and started crawling - something he had not done for months. As he did so, there was a big smile on his face and a slight look of amusement that he should ever have had to move in that way.

Clearly, Tiarnan was reminiscing about his crawling days - and doing so from a vantage of amusement that he should ever have been a crawler.

This is not the only evidence I have seen in Tiarnan of nostalgia, of some kind: I think he is a baby who reflects on himself and his growth and sees his own personal change. He is watching himself grow up. It is interesting that he is self-aware in this way and tracks his own change. I find that rather mature - and not at all like a baby is expected to be. Interesting.

Raymond Ravaglia on out of level testing

As regular readers will know, Raymond Ravaglia, the Deputy Director of EPGY, the Education Program for Gifted Youth, at Stanford University recently gave a talk in Singapore.

He spoke of several things: one of them was his views on out-of-level testing. He considered this form of testing to be ill-conceived. In his eyes, there was no reason why a gifted child would be able to handle the material, for it was unlikely that the gifted child would have covered the material. It didn't make any sense to him that a child should be tested on material the child was probably unaware of. This was, in his opinion, very likely to generate a "false negative" - that is a child would be marked as "non-gifted" by an out of level test, simply because they had never met the material before when, in fact, they were gifted.

Raymond Ravaglia thought that it was wiser to design tests which were in-level, in the sense of being of material covered by the child at the relevant age, but which were designed to be more challenging in their presentation of questions. In this way, a child would not be penalized for not having covered a particular curriculum and would have the opportunity to show their gift, without distortion. He thought that this was much more likely to give a positive result for a gifted child and would not lead to false negatives, and loss of opportunity for the gifted child.

I had rather come to Raymond Ravaglia's view, myself, when first introduced to the idea of out-of-level testing - but it is interesting to see this opinion held by someone working in the American University system. The reasoning on the issue is sound...so why then does the practise of out-of-level testing persist?

Out-of-level testing is based on a misconception about what a gifted child is. A gifted child is a more intelligent child than an average one and is able to learn faster. Yet, a gifted child is not a miracle worker. If the child has not been exposed to the curriculum in question, one cannot expect that child to perform according to their true ability. They will under-perform if the curriculum is new.

My son, Ainan, has been subject to "out-of-level" testing in his area of Chemistry. In his case, the procedure is OK because he does, in fact, have much knowledge of Chemistry beyond his age range. In this case, the practise may be appropriate. Yet, in most cases, such a form of testing is likely to lead to a mismeasure of the child - and therefore should be avoided. If the child does have out-of-level knowledge - then test away. If the child has great ability but does not have out-of-level knowledge then such testing is really going to be harmful.

So, think carefully before consenting to such testing: the results could compromise your child's future and close doors that might have been opened by a different kind of testing.

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

Fintan goes swimming

Yesterday, Fintan,three, took to the pool. Typically, being Fintan, he found something unusual to do there.

Unlike other kids, who swam as humans do, Fintan decided upon something a little different. It might be helpful to know that, so far, none of our children have had any formal swimming lessons. So, when they try to swim, they do so from their own resources. Fintan tried to swim, but never having been taught to do so, he had to try his own method. What did he do? He swam like a dolphin. He adopted the characteristic up and down motion that dolphins use to propel themselves through the water, with his legs substituting for the tail he did not have. It is difficult to describe exactly what he did, but the result was very characteristic of dolphins: he basically looked as if he were patterning a dolphin's movement, overlaying the way it moved onto his limbs.

I thought this both funny and smart. You see a dolphin is a very good swimmer indeed. Fintan must have realized that - so when presented with the problem of how to swim, he decided to try it the way the dolphin does. It worked in propelling him forward, but, for a human this method of going up and down in the water, legs flexing as one, like an imaginary tail, has one drawback: it keeps one's head under the water for long periods. Thus, he can only swim so far, before he has to stop for air. A dolphin would just leap out of the water, breathe, and continue to swim: a human is not equipped to do that really - not strong enough.

Fintan is a good observer of the natural world and his use of the way an animal moves to teach him something has a long and worthy precedent. You see, Kung Fu is derived in the same way: studying the way animals move and adopting a human version of their movement is behind many of the "styles" of this ancient martial art. Fintan doesn't know this - but he does know one thing: the dolphin swims well - so perhaps he could, too, if he did what a dolphin did.

To a very great degree, Fintan did swim like a dolphin, yesterday. Well done, my athletic boy!

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

Tiarnan knows his animals

Yesterday, Tiarnan, thirteen months, saw a wild cat on TV.

As soon as the cat came on TV, he said, quite clearly: "Cheetah".

Now, oddly enough, it was a Cheetah, and not any other kind of cat.

Where had he learnt which cat this was? We have no idea...but it is quite telling that, at his tender age, he is able to make this distinction between cats. At a young age, it is more common for children to lump all animals together and give them one word as a broad category. It is rare to see a baby actually make fine distinctions between them: they are usually unable to see the differences between them, in a way which allows them to make a categorization. They usually can't express a label for the difference, either.

Later, he saw a Cheetah in a book and said the same thing: "Cheetah."

This ability to recognize animals and distinguish between them, is something he shares with his elder brother Fintan, three. There is a common thread, at work.

The difficulty of parenting a prodigy child

Prodigies present their parents with unique problems. One problem is communication with them, in their chosen area.

Ainan is a scientist with a specialist interest in Chemistry - but with other areas developing, too. As his father, and only scientifically aware relative, I have a great responsibility: providing him with someone to talk to, about his chosen subject area. Now, this wasn't such a big problem when he first started investigating Chemistry - but, as the months pass, and he gallops along, I find that he has already surpassed me, in his chemical knowledge - indeed, he did so some while ago. How then, am I to communicate with him?

Well, I have one advantage - and that is many years of general scientific reading and education. I have an understanding of many scientific concepts - and the ability to learn new ones rapidly. In this manner, should Ainan make a scientific observation or proposition, I am able to evaluate whether it is scientifically reasonable and feedback my thoughts on the matter. Yet, there remains a problem: his reading is becoming ever deeper and ever more technical and with it, his knowledge. There is no doubt that he now knows more Chemistry than I ever knew, despite the fact that I took Chemistry up to the end of my first year at Cambridge. Ainan is outgrowing his father's scientific knowledge - at least in his area of interest. Outside of that area, his scientific speculations and understandings are becoming ever more complex - and so, perhaps, one day, I will wrestle with the same problem outside of Chemistry, too.

This developing situation of which I speak will occur with any parent of a prodigy child, to some degree. If the child is truly prodigious, then they will outgrow the parent, in their chosen area, unless the parent is a practising, ever learning and growing professional in the area of the child's expertise. I am not. I am a generally educated scientist, but don't practise as a professional Chemist (though I used to be a Physicist).

So, what do I do? I try to keep up with his reading so that I can provide him with a sounding-board for his thoughts; a scientific confidante. I am able to do this at present, for my scientific understanding is very broad - and I learn new concepts quickly, allowing me to talk things through with him.

One day, though, I know that I alone will not be enough for him. One day, he will speak and I will have no means to understand. Should that day come, and Ainan have no other chemically trained person to talk to, he will be alone, in the world, in his thoughts. I hope to forestall that day by re-teaching myself Chemistry (after all, it is two long decades since I studied it) and by learning Chemistry I never knew, just to keep up. Yet, how much longer can I run along behind him? Can I keep pace with him, so that he has someone to relate his thoughts to? His mind is younger and fresher than mine, so I labour at a natural disadvantage. My mind will slow as his grows strong. Clearly, there will come a time when I cannot converse with him as he might wish - unless I make as much an effort to become a well-versed chemist as he does.

This, then, is the situation of all parents of a prodigy child. As the child grows in their discipline, they grow further apart from the parent, until the day comes when parent and child can no longer converse. Is it not sad, that victory in the child's growth, inevitably leads to a kind of mental division from the parent? Yet, that is what every parent of a prodigy unknowingly seeks, in trying to help their child grow. They seek the day when parent and child can no longer talk, and be understood.

There is a kind of irony in that, that I am not sure I am comfortable with - yet, I try to enable my son's progress, knowing, even as I do, that I am taking him to a place of which, he will not be able to speak to me.

How strange is life, that victory should also be a kind of defeat.

Good luck Ainan. If you ever read this, know at least that I tried to keep up.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, or his gifted brothers Tiarnan, thirteen 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, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)