The Nurburgring race track, Germany

I have to come that the true purpose of children, is to surprise their parents. That, after all, is what my children do, with astonishing regularity.

A few weeks ago, Fintan, seven, was in a shopping centre, with me. We were walking past an electronics store. Outside it, were some high end televisions, showing glossy images, to attract attention. One of them showed a racing car in action.

"That", said Fintan, as he stopped in his tracks, "is the Nurburgring."

Personally, I was flabbergasted. How on Earth could Fintan recognize a German race track, from a few seconds of footage on a TV?

"How do you know that?", I asked Fintan.

"Anyone knows that.", said Ainan, with an implicit shrug.

"Really?", I countered, looking at him, intently. "How many seven year olds do you know, that recognize the Nurburgring, from a glimpse?"

"Ah.", said Ainan, coming to a realization, "Yes. Among seven year olds, perhaps none of them would recognize it...but among those who know about racing..."

"Yes...and how many youngsters do?"

Ainan fell silent, his wordlessness sufficient agreement for my liking.

I thought the whole incident very informative for the way my son's mind worked. He only needed a fragmentary image of the Nurburgring, to recognize it. That can only mean that he is very visual in his thinking - or at least one aspect of it - and is able to match parts of images with ease. I was impressed, for it was something that, at forty two, I could not do. I simply didn't know enough about racing to recognize the tracks. Fintan, at seven, however, had imbibed enough background knowledge, from his shared passion for cars, with Ainan, to do so, in an instant.

Like I said, to be a father, can be surprising, at times, but also humbling...for though young, little children may be able to do things, that one cannot do oneself - and they do it, without apparent effort.

Well done, Fintan!

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Tiarnan's speed of reaction

Yesterday Tiarnan showed an interesting side to his physical development: reaction time and co-ordination.

You see, Tiarnan was standing beside the front door to our house. Those of you who have read many of the early postings on my blog will know that this is a very heavy wooden affair. Well, as he was standing there, the door suddenly began to open - and yet Tiarnan was only inches from it when it began to do so. I was too far away to do anything about it - but what impressed me was what Tiarnan himself did about it - he ran backwards, at once. Were he to avoid being struck by the door, there simply wasn't time to turn around - and so he ran backwards. He reacted very fast and began to move as soon as the door began to leap towards him. He did about five or six quick backward steps taking him out of reach of the door.

It was interesting to note that he did not stumble or fall in this backwards motion - and yet it is the first time I have noted him moving backwards like that. It seems he got it right, first time (though he may have run backwards on other occasions unobserved, of course). What was also of note is the speed of reaction he showed: he was so close to that door that, to avoid being struck, he must have begun to move very shortly, indeed, upon perceiving the movement of the door. I think he reacted rather more quickly than a typical adult would do.

Had he been struck by that door, it would have been really unfunny, so heavy is it. There is no doubt that he would have been injured.

I will have to make sure that the guest in question learns the value of knocking on the door, first, before opening it. Not everyone in Singapore behaves as people would in England.

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

Leonardo's speed of perception

Leonardo Da Vinci was a man of many gifts, as is well known. I will not list them here for I have written of him in another post. There is, however, one peculiarity of this remarkable man that I wish to draw your attention to. Among Leonardo's copious surviving written documents (which may only, in fact, be about half of what he wrote, the rest being lost, by careless handling, by those he entrusted it to) there is a series of detailed drawings of a bird's wings in flight, showing the precise disposition of the feathers, as they arrange themselves, at various stages in the flapping motion.

Think about that for a moment. It is easy to overlook the special meaning of those drawings. For a typical human, a bird's wings are a blur, in flight, so fast are they. No ordinary man could see exactly how the feathers were arranged in a flapping bird's wing, but Leonardo could - and he drew them to prove it.

Clearly, Leonardo Da Vinci possessed a speed of perception beyond that of an ordinary man - for him the motion was not a blur, but a clearly visible fluid sequence of motions. Then there is the sharpness of his eyesight, which must have been far surpassed the ordinary man's to see these details in a flying bird, which could have been any distance from him.

Leonardo was not just a universal genius. He possessed abilities that place him outside the common realm of even the company of other geniuses.

It was not until several hundred years had passed and stop-motion photography was invented, that Leonardo's view of how birds actually fly, was proven to be correct: he had seen this with his naked eye.

What do you think of this superhuman speed of perception? I would like your thoughts on it, as I may write further, on some related matter.

(If you would like to read of my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and one month, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Note that owing to a problem with my blogger interface I am presently unable to edit posts and so cannot update the scientific child prodigy guide page. I trying to resolve the difficulty. For recent posts, you will have to go to the head page and hunt through the links on the left-hand side. Thanks.)