Tiarnan, the Defiant

Tiarnan is fourteen months old, with two elder siblings. It is that fact that I wish to consider. How does Tiarnan deal with having two, older, larger brothers?

I will look at the situation through the lens of a single behaviour. Sometimes, there is competition for toys - who plays with what when - between Fintan and Tiarnan, since they are quite close in age, Fintan being three. Occasionally this will mean that Fintan will snatch a toy off Tiarnan, if he is too impatient to wait, or perceives the toy as "his" and therefore rightfully owned (which may, indeed, be the case). So, what does Tiarnan do, if a toy is taken from him?

Well, recently, in the past few weeks, he has adopted quite an amusing response. After being snatched from, he will run off and get another toy. Then he will come back and brandish it in the face of the snatcher, as if to say: "Well, you can't get this one!" He stands there, diminutive and all defiant: it is both sweet and funny - but interesting for what it says of his developing character. He doesn't bemoan his loss. He doesn't cry. He doesn't kick up a fuss - he just goes off and gets another one - and then challenges the snatcher to do the same to his new toy. There is, in this the sense of an admirably robust and resilient personality developing - one that will not be easily thwarted by the actions of others. I think, from the evidence of his style of play, that Tiarnan will be the sort of person who has the persistence to overcome many challenges and always find a way to bounce back.

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