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The boy who knew too much: a child prodigy

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family. I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become. Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

Saturday, January 14, 2012

How to play computer games, Ainan's way.

Ainan, my 12 year old son, has his own approach to computer games playing.

A week or so, ago, he remarked to me: “I have been editing the lightwarp in Team Fortress 2.”

That sounded rather technical to me.

“How do you do that?”

He looked at me, with mild surprise, as if I had asked “How do you count to ten?”

“It’s simple Daddy. You just open the vtf file and change the colour strip.”

As an explanation, that rather failed to allow me to understand how to do it. Clearly, however, he knew how to do it.

Ainan has been doing this for some time. Whenever he finds himself dissatisfied with a gaming experience, he opens up the code for the game – and recodes it to his satisfaction, producing a game that looks the way he wants it to.

When he first revealed what he was doing, I asked him:

“How did you learn that?”

“I taught myself. It is easy. You just open the code and it is very obvious what to do.”

I am not sure that this “obvious” task, would be that obvious to most.

Ainan has a sense for these things. He seems to have an instinct for how computers work and what to do to make them work the way he wants them to. This, it strikes me, should prove a very useful skill in a future world in which computers are going to become ever more dominant. What is particularly good about this interest of his, is that it is self-directed. He is teaching himself how to do these things, because he enjoys it. It is something which arises naturally out of his own curiosity and joy. This, of course, is the best way to learn something and the way most likely to give rise to productive fruit.

So, Ainan likes to play computer games, at home. However, his computer games tend to have been customised to his own, inner vision, of what they should look like. That he does this, makes me much happier that he is spending valuable time playing such games – for I know that, for him, they are a lesson in computing, as much as anything else. He has managed to turn computer games into a somewhat creative hobby and one that is teaching him a lot more than one might suppose. I have written one snatch of his conversation regarding computer games and their coding. I have only written this quote because it is one that I remember. Quite often, however, his comments are beyond recall, because they are beyond comprehension. They are just too technical to be readily understood, by someone outside the field, like me. I am content, however, to listen and admire his enthusiasm. That is the best thing a parent can do in the circumstances. I enjoy his enjoyment, even if I don’t understand the fullness of his comments on his interest.

It gives me great pleasure to see Ainan deepen his interests, in this way. If, sometimes, those interests become so technical as to defy ready understanding, then I am even more pleased – for it implies that his understanding has gone beyond that of an intelligent, but uninitiated layman.

Anyway, Ainan’s example has shown me that there can be unexpected lessons to be found, even in the most unpromising of places, if the child, in question, is resourceful enough to see something interesting to do with the material at hand. In this case...reprogramming the computer games, rather than just playing them passively.


Carry on gaming, Ainan...and coding, too!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 5:30 PM  2 comments

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Dangerous music.

Quirkiness of thought and expression is a much under-rated characteristic. For me, the quirky are more interesting than the merely intelligent. Indeed, many of the world’s most interesting creations come from the minds of the world’s quirks, as it were.

Today, Fintan, eight, was playing with a children’s toy, which I believe to belong to his young niece (about 3 years old). He turned it on, and pushed a button or two. Electronic music bellowed out from it. He smiled to himself and levelled it towards me:

“Watch Daddy, this machine will erase your whole mind!”, he announced, rather theatrically. He then set about proving it, calling up repetitive annoying tune after repetitive annoying tune, laughing to himself all the while. He repeated each short snatch of music for maximal mind-numbing effect, punctuating it only with the occasional cackle to himself.

Before he had actually proved the efficacy of the device, but by the time I had become convinced that it, indeed, had the power to “erase my whole mind”, I told him, firmly, but with tongue in cheek:

“Switch it off Fintan, it is beginning to work!”

He had mercy on me and switched it off. Unfortunately, little Tiarnan, five, who had no mercy in him whatsoever, took over and chose the most repetitive irritating tunes of all to play, repeatedly. He wasn’t playing it because he liked the music. He was playing it because he liked the effect on his Daddy. After much amusement – from him, alone, I might add – he finally switched it off, after I had begged him several times.

I think Fintan has found the answer to the mystery as to why three year olds are generally surpassed by eight year olds, mentally: it is those damned mind erasing devices they play with!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 8:16 PM  4 comments

Monday, January 09, 2012

A blend of the senses

Firstly, I am sorry to my regular readers that I have not written for a few days. I have been very busy at the turn of the New Year.

Often times, I am grateful at my serendipitous choice of wife. We met by unexpected chance, one day, long ago...and I could not have known the fullness of her talents at the time of meeting, yet, it has proven a good choice in many ways one of which I am about to explain.

My wife complements me (note not compliments me!) in many ways. Where I am not so strong, she is – and vice versa to a great extent. So we are a good match for each other, if the purpose is to seek a wider range of abilities in a couple, than either has alone. One of the ways she is strong, is her sense of smell. Hers is uncanny. She can do things with that sense that I have encountered no-one else being able to do. But that is a tale for another post. This is one about my son, Ainan.

Luckily for Ainan, he has inherited some of my wife’s sense of smell, rather than just my own. This is a useful blend of the senses, because he shows a sensitivity to smell that I do not have. The other day, he remarked: “Every room in this house has a different smell.” Now, for someone with an acute sense of smell, that might be an unremarkable statement – but for me, it was certainly notable since the rooms of the house smell much the same to me. Indeed, if blindfolded, I would not be able to distinguish them, in that way: Ainan, however, could, no doubt.

Smell is very much a part of his experience. He has a strong sensory memory and anything can trigger it. He remarked, the other day, that a particular type of car noise, evoked, in him, a “flashback” to a smell of a friend’s car. He smelt it, again, as if it were there. So, for him (but not for me) smell is a very present sense. It is also one that he uses to evaluate his environment, relying on it in a way that I do not. For him, smell presents a landscape of different places to him, each with its own aroma. To me, only sight and sound do that.

Of course, this leads to one issue any future girlfriends of his will have to be careful about: the choice of perfume. I am rather sure he will have strong views about that. He might even prefer that they have no perfume at all – so that he can assess how they, themselves, truly smell. I know that was a very important factor for my wife...I rather think it will be so, for him, too.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)


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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 10:27 PM  4 comments

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