The best colour in the world.

Fintan has a favourite colour: you'll never guess which it is.

The day before yesterday, Fintan came to me holding a blue bicycle helmet in his hand. I had already examined it, with Tiarnan earlier and knew that it had a missing fastener. It needed replacing - either the fastener or the helmet.

"Daddy...", he began, his eyes searching mine, his tongue searching for the right words to approach the issue, delicately, "Can you buy me an orange helmet?"

"OK...we will do it this weekend."

Unusually, though gratified by that, he didn't seem content.

"Daddy...", he began again, measuring the size of my indulgence, inwardly, "Can you buy me a new bike?"

Now, a bicycle helmet, I could handle, but I wasn't prepared for a new bike: the old one still had the mandatory two wheels and that was good enough for me.

"Why?", I probed, realizing I couldn't see why he would need a NEW bike, when the old one was not broken down.

"Because it is not orange."

Ah. I see. I dwelt on his words for a moment or two, in silence.

"Can I have an orange helmet and an orange bike, Daddy?" He repeated, no longer prepared to wait for an answer.

"You can have an orange helmet. But not an orange bike - they are very expensive."

He was silent for only a moment.

Then he came back with a very reasonable tone: "Okaaay. I will have an orange helmet...but use the old bike."

I was warmed by the reasonableness of his reply. He understood and accepted the situation and my imposed limitation on his desires. He is good like that. Fintan is very accommodating. He never fails to understand the reality of a situation when it is presented to him. This makes it a whole lot easier communicating to my newly-minted five year old. (Newly minted because he has just turned five, a matter of days ago.)

This whole exchange is characteristic of Fintan. He has a particular aesthetic outlook, with a strong point of view on aesthetic matters - one which is very much his own, uninfluenced, it seems, by our own choices. He makes decisions based on aesthetic priorities over other considerations. It is interesting to watch a young child so certain of his views of what is beautiful, of what is acceptable, of what is desirable. He never fails to have an opinion on such matters. It seems that there is a nascent artist in him waiting to come out - for the first gift of an artist is a point of view: without that the art would have no personality or individuality. Fintan, at least, has an aesthetic point of view.

This is not our only brush with the colour orange recently. It looks like we will be living in an orange world for some time to come.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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The beauty of a car

Can a toddler see the beauty of a car? Is it something that communicates to the very young and unformed? It seems so.

Today, Tiarnan saw a red Ferrari in Orchard Road. It was parked off to the side near Borders. He was running at the time he spotted its sleek curves. He immediately halted and stared at it for a long moment. Then he did something both strange and sweet. He approached the car by the passenger side door, stretched out his arms and pressed his cheek against the car door.

He was giving the Ferrari a hug.

I rather wish I had had a camera: it would have made a good moment to capture.

He stood with his arms and face against the car door, communing with the beautiful machine. Once he had done so to his satisfaction, he parted and began to run again, his greeting fulfilled.

So, the beauty of supercars is apparent even to a toddler: the carefully crafted aerodynamic lines of a sports car are aesthetic even to a toddler's eyes. It was a special moment to see him respond so to such an adult thing, as a supercar.

Now, of course, I have to wait in dread for the moment he asks for a Ferrari, for himself.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind)

The super puzzle solver of Singapore

A couple of months ago, Fintan got given one of those gifts that was more appropriate than we could possibly have thought. It was a Spiderman puzzle.

Now, we are not a household that goes in for conventional puzzles (of the broken image variety). I, for one, never found them particularly interesting. Thus, we haven't made any effort to ensure that our children were surrounded by them.

The puzzle was an interesting choice for Fintan, four, because he rather likes Spiderman (Fintan is a superhero expert). However, I was concerned to note that the puzzle was of many pieces, and all in dark colours with little contrast and few clues to allow each piece to be placed in its proper position. I didn't, therefore, hold out much hope for Fintan being able to do it. It seemed rather an unhelpful puzzle, actually.

I withheld my tongue, however, as an inner wish bid me to discourage him from even trying it. I let him proceed. He scattered the puzzle pieces everywhere and then set about reassembling them.

I was feeling thirsty so I went to get a cup of tea.

A few minutes later I returned. The puzzle was done. Fintan had finished it.

I was somewhat startled to see this, since I, for one, had not expected anyone to be able to do the puzzle at all easily, given its problems in design, already spoken of, above - but somehow, Fintan, who was ever an observant child, saw enough in it, to get it done very quickly indeed.

I congratulated him - and looked with some puzzlement at the wholeness of the dark image he presented me with.

Fintan has not been weaned on puzzles. Yet, somehow he is most adept at them. Again, he has shown us surprising resources where visual tasks are concerned.

Of course, those tasks which require visual skill - such as Art - are not popular or well supported here in Singapore. We shall have to find our own ways of ensuring that his native gifts are developed accordingly.

The next time I see a puzzle which looks inordinately complicated, with few visual cues as to how to complete it, I know just what to do with it: give it to Fintan.

(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 seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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.)

A secret beauty therapist, Singapore

Yesterday, I noted something strange about Syahidah's toes. They had been painted. Now, this is no ordinary circumstance for Syahidah, for she never paints her toenails - or fingernails, for that matter. Furthermore, these were no ordinary colours. The big toe was in pink. The next toe was in green. The one next to it in blue - and so on, in a multi-coloured splash of colour. It was quite surprising.

Seeing me looking at them, she smiled and said: "Tiarnan did it."

Then she told me the tale. Tiarnan, twenty-two months, had held each toe in his right hand and took a marker pen in his left hand and carefully, most, most carefully, coloured in each toe nail, without straying onto the skin of the foot. It was quite neatly done. Then, when he had done with one colour and one toe, he would swap pens and do the next toe in a different colour, until the whole foot was done.

He was most pleased with his handiwork.

Now, what I wonder could have inspired him to do this? Well, when my mother and sister were here, he noticed, one day that they had painted their nails: one in red, the other with white tips. I can only imagine that this observation, of a couple of weeks before, had stuck with him and so, when presented with the unadorned foot of Syahidah, he thought to do something about it.

At a distance, one wouldn't know that it had not been done with nail varnish. It seems that even an ordinary marker pen can do a reasonable job of it, when done with care - by a toddler.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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 notationally gifted

What is a notationally gifted child? Well, it is a child gifted in the use of common notation: that is words and numbers. It is, in fact, what most people commonly think of as gifted.

Yet, there is a problem with this idea of the gifted person as notationally gifted. You see, many gifted children and gifted adults are NOT notationally gifted, and yet are gifted in some definite, real, tangible sense. They may have a gift for music, or art, or may be particularly good with spatial thinking. They may be gifted socially - or may have the kind of inner wisdom that allows them to understand themselves very well (intrapersonal intelligence). These latter types might be good poets or writers, or other kinds of artists who draw on a knowledge of the self. They might even be gifted in a sense that most people don't even consider to be gifted: kinaesthetically gifted - that is, gifted in movement. Such people may be fine dancers or great athletes. They, too, possess a gift. Yet, none of these categories of people might show up on a conventional IQ test, as "gifted" - for they are not necessarily notationally gifted, as well.

So, the common idea of the gifted, which coincides with the concept of the "notationally gifted" is very limiting. It constrains our understanding of what a gifted person may be, and excludes, in fact, most gifted people. There are many more kinds of gifted people out there, than are described by the ability to use words and numbers well. Yet, the problem with most gifted programs and the thinking behind them, is that giftedness will manifest in a gift for words and numbers. This is not necessarily so. Such people are just a subset of the gifted people in the world.

I am not denying the importance of notational giftedness - for such gift is the foundation of effectiveness in the academic world and all its allied professions - but there is more to giftedness than that. We deprive the world of the gifts of the many and varied gifted, if we refuse to see the full range of gifted people among us. Some who are musically or artistically or kinaesthetically gifted, may also be notationally gifted, too. However, many of them will not be. Their gift will stand apart from the more common academic gifts. Let us not exclude them from the opportunities they need to grow just because they don't fit our common understanding of what a "gifted" person is. Picasso wasn't much of an everyday student - but in his art, he shone. I doubt whether he would have been identified as "gifted" by a program that used IQ tests alone to determine membership - but that he had a gift, is self-evident, to anyone who has seen his art. The same may be said by many thousands of unknown gifted people, out there in the world. Many of them will remain unidentified and unsupported, because the educational screening systems are using too narrow a criteria to define giftedness. Giftedness is not just about pure intellect (in a notational sense) - there are other kinds of thinker and other kinds of thinking. We lessen the world, if we ever forget that.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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.)