Reaction time and age of subject.

Children learn quickly, don't they? Adults are slow, plodding creatures in the classroom and it is the quickwitted child who beats them every time. So, a child is quicker than an adult in every way...right? Wrong.

Though a child is smaller and therefore there is less distance for nerve signals to travel around their bodies, the reaction time of a child is SLOWER than an adult's. In fact, there is an inverse linear relationship between age and reaction time. In other words, the older you are, the faster you are (to a limit). Indeed, one source I noted declared that reaction time in the first grade may be TWICE as long as reaction time in the sixth grade. So these age differences are marked indeed.

I think it is important for parents to know this. Don't expect a child to react with the swiftness of an adult. Not only will they not - but they can't.

In experiments on subjects of various ages, using two different stimuli - one a light which goes on and off (visual stimulus), the other a buzzer which sounds (audible stimulus), the mean reaction times were determined.

There are not only differences for age, but differences for sex, too.

I shall list the results for male subjects first.

Age: 20. Stimulus seen: 240 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 230 milliseconds.
Age: 30. Stimulus seen: 220 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 190 milliseconds.
Age: 40. Stimulus seen: 260 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 240 milliseconds.
Age: 50. Stimulus seen: 270 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 250 milliseconds.
Age: 60. Stimulus seen: 380 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 370 milliseconds.

Reaction time results for female subjects:

Age: 20. Stimulus seen: 320 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 310 milliseconds.
Age: 30. Stimulus seen: 260 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 200 milliseconds.
Age: 40. Stimulus seen: 340 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 300 milliseconds.
Age: 50. Stimulus seen: 360 milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 300 milliseconds.
Age: 60. Stimulus seen: 44o milliseconds. Stimulus heard: 420 milliseconds.

The big surprise in these figures is that 30 year olds are faster than 20 year olds, for both male and female subjects.

The other notable feature is that male subjects have faster reaction time than females at all ages.

I was somewhat shocked to note the very sudden slowing of reactions at the age of 60. They are markedly slower and less responsive than only ten years younger. It seems that we really do "slow down" as we get older. I just hadn't realized how marked the decline was.

An awareness of these charts can help us understand the needs of both the young and old. It also instils a new respect for 30 year olds. They are actually faster than teenagers! (I don't think too many teenagers will believe it though.)

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and six months, and Tiarnan, twenty-three 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, Singapore, 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.)

It is never too late to live

Today, a searcher arrived on my site with the words: "Can an adult be a music prodigy when they were not one in childhood?"

Whenever I see a search, I can only imagine the context from which the searcher has come. In this case, it seems clear that the searcher is most probably one of musical gift - or knows someone who is - but has ignored that gift, or been unable to address it, until late in life.

I have one piece of advice for anyone with a latent gift: it is never too late to let it live. Don't procrastinate. Take the time to breath some life back into those old, sleeping talents and let them wake, once more. If one is born gifted, one remains gifted, in some way, to some degree, in whatever area the gift may be. One gifted in Art, will always find it easier to draw than one who has no such gift - the same with music, or sport, or any other human attribute. So, if you feel you have a sleeping gift - wake it up and start to use it, again. It will grow once more and flower into some semblance of what it should have been.

No doubt, an adult who does this is unlikely to reach the heights that would have been reached had the gift been expressed in childhood and nurtured through regular expression ever since. Such a person could make a mark indeed. However, that does not mean that late "blooming", is without the prospect of worthwhile achievement. Many are those who did not turn to their gifts until they reached retirement, having postponed them, amidst the everyday rush of life, until then. Mary Wesley, the novelist, for instance, was an old age pensioner before she first began to write professionally. What would she have written had she begun as a child? We will never know...but we know this: that the works that arrived so late were worth the wait - and so, too, can yours be.

Don't say to yourself, "If only...", instead just begin to do what you should always have done. In time, it will be as if you had always written/sung/painted/composed, so assured will your works seem. Old gifts never die - just people do - when they forget to let their gifts live.

As I read that searchers comment I felt touched by it, too, for reasons of my own. I, too, like many of you, have gifts to which I have not given full expression. Life always seems too busy to allow the fullness of oneself to be expressed - yet, do not allow yourself to be defeated. There are ways to begin the expression of that which lies within, once more. In time, the works that effort gives rise to may be worthy indeed.

Yes, of course, it is ideal to begin in childhood, the creative endeavours that fill a life - but that does not preclude the possibility of a late start. Many have done so and left an impressive body of work to the world. So don't regret - just begin.

Good luck.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children 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.)

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!