Ainan's baby name suggestion

I wonder if Ainan knows something I don't. Yesterday, he started to write down long words on a piece of paper.

I asked him what he was doing.

He looked up from his task, and said: "I am thinking of names for the next baby. The one after Tiarnan."

I was somewhat surprised, since I didn't know that Tiarnan had a smaller sibling on the way. Certainly, he didn't the last time I checked.

"What's the name then?"

He then spoke in the most curious voice, like a Thai person, lilting through the word in a high pitched sing-song.

"Cherblobrodingylodydoeroolikrickydeehywltydodobroldydic."

Catchy.

The funny thing is, when he said it, it actually sounded quite pretty...a sort of wistful word in a language I didn't know.

"Is it a boy's name or a girl's name?"

He shrugged. "It could be a name for anything."

This interchange made me smile, inside, for many reasons. Firstly, it told me that Ainan really rather likes having siblings. Not only that but he would like more of them. He is looking forward to the next two-legged surprise in the house. He is even making plans to name the baby, in his own idiosyncratic way.

The other thing I noted, of course, was that his liking for Chemistry, with its abundance of long words, had given him both an interest in and tolerance for long words - such that he would even make up a long nonsense word - which sounded rather pleasant on his tongue - to name a baby with. He would even remember these words later: they would become, for him, genuine words, with a new meaning or application. In this case, a baby name.

There is a hint here of something else. Perhaps Ainan, who has not shown much interest in languages, is developing an interest in the structure of words, their origin and development - perhaps he will become interested in languages themselves, in due course. There are other hints of this which I will write of another time.

It is, in all, both a comical and a hopeful development.

As for his baby name. If there ever is another little Cawley, I might settle for a somewhat shorter name. We have already established a family tradition, such that I know, in advance, what a boy's name is going to look like. So do you, too. As for a girl's name: well, that would need us to start a whole new tradition. You might be relieved to know that I won't be following Ainan's format.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The Age of the Universe to one Young

Fintan is four years old. He has just begun. He sees the world, therefore, with fresher eyes than mine and is able to wonder at things I no longer do. Thus, to speak with him, sometimes, is to see again, a younger world I can no longer see directly. It is to see wonder, where I see ordinariness.

The other day, Fintan and I were walking together in a park area. We came to a triangular area that had been cordoned off, rather like a crime scene, with tape with "Danger Keep Out", written on it.

Fintan looked at this tape and understood that its intent was to exclude.

"Why did they do this Daddy?"

"I don't know. Perhaps the branches are falling."

He considered this for a second and found it wanting: "Why do the branches fall?"

“Because I think they are old and weak.”

That surprised him. He looked around him then, with appraising eyes.

"Is this place old?"

"Yes."

"Is the world old, too?"

"Yes."

"All the world?"

"Yes Fintan."

He looked at the world with a new understanding and a new concern - as if perhaps it might crumble away before him out of sheer antiquity.

Then a new thought came to him. I could see it in his eyes before he spoke.

"Are people old, too?"

"Yes."

Then it came at last: his deepest concern. "Are you old Daddy?"

"Yes, Fintan, I am old."

I felt it, then, the decades past, within me, as I looked down on my four year old son. For him, I was as old as a Redwood is to me. I was like the ground on which I stood: ancient.

He didn't say anything more. He just considered, in the quietness of his eyes, his ever appraising eyes, the antique that was his Daddy.

Everything was old compared to my Fintan. But then, the beginning is ever more interesting than the end.

Fintan's wonder, was contagious and, for a time thereafter, I felt the antiquity of the world, acutely.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

A preference for challenge

Yesterday, I took Tiarnan to a playground. There is nothing unusual in that, of course, but in the course of play I did notice something interesting about his choices.

The centrepiece of the playground was a conglomeration of slides, stairs, overhead bridges and a climbing wall. Many kids were buzzing around it, in high speed play, running, crawling and sliding.

Tiarnan looked at the structure and decided to climb up the inclined wall to get to the frame, itself. The wall had footholds and handholds but was steep enough to be far from easy to climb. He had either to use both footholds and handholds, at once, to be able to climb up it. He did so, using all four limbs where he thought appropriate, finally reaching the top like some little mountain climber.

Then he ran across a suspended bridge, holding onto the chains to make sure he didn't slip, crawled through a tube and slid down the slide.

At the bottom he stood up and circled round to where he had started: beneath the climbing wall.

He looked at the wall and then to the left to a flight of stairs. It was as if he had noticed the stairs for the first time, so he ran over to it and climbed up the steps and went through the same circuit: across the suspended bridge, through the tunnel and down the slide.

So, nothing surprising there. But what he did next was. He immediately ran around to the climbing wall and climbed up it, laboriously, toehold by toehold, fingerhold by fingerhold, until he reached the top - and then went through the circuit again.

He did this tirelessly, time and time again, always choosing the climbing wall and never again using the stairs.

I found this most revealing of his character. The stairs was the easy option. He tried it once and never tried it again. The hard option was the climbing wall - which was, I am sure, meant for much older kids than twenty-one month old Tiarnan. (The stated age group on the slides was 2 to 6 years old). Yet, he never succumbed to the temptation to take the easy option, given a choice between the two.

What was really telling though was that the climbing wall was always free for Tiarnan to use - for the simple reason that none of the other kids used it at all. They were of all ages - some older than the upper limit of 6, seemingly. None were as small as Tiarnan. Yet, no other kid tried the climbing wall as a way to get up onto the frame.

I didn't expect to learn anything about Tiarnan at a playground - but I did. There is something in him that really prefers a challenge, to the easy way of doing things.

The other lesson of course is that there is something in the other dozen kids or so, that prefers the easy way out, to the challenge. It was a double lesson, therefore.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

What is Beauty? (Again)

I tried to post on Beauty, yesterday, but today I observe that no post appeared. How uncanny. No record of it appears on my saved posts, either.

It seems that such a question cannot be asked on a blogger console.

I will, therefore, tell the tale again.

Two days ago, we went to Fort Canning Park, in Singapore. This is a converted military fort with all the old fortifications in place, but now purposeless. It provides a very interesting and architecturally stimulating environment with, as you might expect from a fortified hill, good views and pleasant walks.

That, however, was not the highlight of my day which provoked me to write.

I had given a bottle of water to Tiarnan, 21 months, who ran off with it to drink in peace. After a minute or so, he sat down on the grass, legs splayed in a V and continued to quaff his drink. Suddenly, without any warning, he tipped the whole bottle of water over his head - then laughed loudly, freely, purely, as the water coursed over his head, down his face and onto his clothes.

It was a beautiful moment seeing him revel so in the sensations the water created. Perhaps he just wanted to feel what the water would be like on him, in that moment. Or perhaps he was just hot, on this typical Singapore day, in which the heat never relents. Whichever it was, his freedom in simply tipping a load of water over himself and laughter at the feeling, was most sweet to see.

He stood up then, his wet clothes clinging to him, along with sand and soil from the ground and ran over to me.

He couldn't have been happier - and neither could I.

Beauty is many things. For me, this is Beauty. Perhaps, if you are a parent, you too will share this view.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Fast learners, misdescription and underestimation

I was struck recently by a phenomenon which gifted children are likely to encounter: their misdescription by others.

Now, what do I mean by this? Well, often gifted children are faster learners than other people. The more gifted the child, the faster they can learn. This leads to a very interesting phenomenon: no-one will make a correct description of the child, unless they have met them very recently.

I will explain. You see, if a child is growing, learning and changing very fast and continues to do so, then anyone who meets them is meeting them at a particular point of development. When they are later asked to describe the child, they will describe as they were on that day. Yet, if weeks or months have passed since then, the description will be out of date. For the most gifted of children, this disparity could be great indeed.

I will give an example. Recently, in an interview, a Professor said of Ainan: "I have no doubt he is a Chemistry prodigy". He then went on to say things which he knew, for sure, Ainan understood.

I was immediately struck by how much Ainan had changed in his level, since this Professor had interviewed him, 9 months before. He was talking about a different child. The child he talked about was basically at High School graduation level but the child he had since become is at College Graduation level in the American system (that is at a Major in Chemistry level, Bachelor's). Big difference.

(Note that a British style Undergraduate degree covers American style Graduate material - sometimes even with a research component, depending on course.)

Yet, anyone reading that could misperceive Ainan.

This will happen with any of the most gifted children - but it will still happen, to a degree to those of more moderate gift.

In speaking of gifted children, therefore, we must never forget to ask ourselves: how much has that child grown since I last spoke to him/her in detail? The answer could be "far more than you could imagine."

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

What is beauty?