Childhood stories, in the eyes of a child.

A few days ago, my wife Syahidah, told a story to her youngest son, Tiarnan, 6. The story was not a happy one. It was about a cruel old woman, who didn’t feed her cat, until the cat’s fur started to fall out. Eventually, the cat died of starvation.

On finishing the story, Syahidah looked expectantly at Tiarnan for a reaction. She expected him to empathize with the cat and be unhappy with the old woman.

Tiarnan looked thoughtful.

“Did the old woman have enough food for herself in the first place?”, he enquired, gently, of his surprised mother.

That was a thought that had not occurred to her. Tiarnan had come upon his own alternative interpretation of the possible story behind the events described.

His face grew even more intent.

“Also did the fur really fall out because of the lack of food? I see Mochi and Sushi pulling each other’s fur out.”

Mochi and Sushi are our female rabbits.

These two little thoughts, of Tiarnan’s left Syahidah rather impressed. They showed that Tiarnan wasn’t accepting the story at face value – at the value the writing of the story was trying to lead him to hold. No. Tiarnan was re-examining the story for other possible explanations and seeing in it, other reasons for why the events had unfolded as they had – reasons which absolved the old woman of personal blame and shifted the blame onto unfortunate circumstances, instead.

Tiarnan’s thinking, here, showed both creativity and critical analysis – and the ability to form his own view, apart from any view he was being led to believe. These are hopeful characteristics and bespeak the growth of an independent mind likely to hold its own views, no matter what the majority says. His is a young mind likely to grow into an original thinker, irrespective of what might commonly be believed.

What is most indicative of a creative mind at work, here, is that he did not accept the view he was being led to hold, but examined the situation for himself, testing it against his own understanding of the possibilities. He thought it through for himself, coming to his own conception of what was happening, or at least his own consideration of what might have been happening. He used his imagination for what the possible underlying truths might be. In doing so he was forming theories of motivation and circumstance, to explain observed behaviour - theories which were not stated in the story, but which he inferred would explain the observed actions, if they were operant. This is both quite complex thinking and creative, too, for he needed to invent possible explanations and reality test them for explanatory and predictive value, given his understanding of human behavioural possibilities. I would characterize this thinking as independent, mature, creative and insightful...and that is rather heartening to note in one just six years old.

Tiarnan is showing a very interesting blend of characteristics, in his thinking, in his personality and in the way he does things. His is a very complex young mind, in many ways, with multiple unexpected dispositions held in one mind. I will elucidate on these characteristics over time, in other posts – just let it be said, here, that Tiarnan promises to become a deep and subtle young man, one day.

In the meantime, as he grows up, he will, no doubt, be able to teach his mother, alternative ways of seeing the childhood stories she tells him. I wonder who will learn more, the son or the mother?

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Like father, like son.

Yesterday, I sat at the computer typing, as I am now doing. Behind me, Tiarnan busied himself with something, that I could only hear, and not see.

"I like THAT one...and that one!", he said to himself.

Wondering just what it was that he liked, I turned around.

There, he had laid out a series of "Conan" books, side by side, in a long line. Each had a picture on the front of the heroic Conan engaged in some swordplay - either with other warriors (though hugely outnumbered, in all cases), or with a monster of some kind - usually, most oddly, a giant snake.

I rose from my desk and walked over to him, curious as to which of these heroic images he liked.

"Which ones do you like?", I asked him.

"All of them!", he said, sweeping his arm down the length of the long line of Conan books.

I thought this a funny moment and it made me wonder many things. Long ago, as a boy, I had read Robert E. Howard's Conan books. They had appealed to my teenage imagination, with their tales of the resolute Conan hacking his heroic way through a brutal ancient world, with barely a scratch, so talented was he in swordplay. There was something primal about the stories, something basic and fundamental, to early man - and therefore, by extension, to us all, for that is where we come from. (Though, of course, the details would be rather different and no man could survive long living as Conan did.)

Now, before me, my three year old son, was interested in the very same books that had held my childhood imagination (or some of them, anyway...I read a lot of books). It seems that the same heroic imagery had a hold over my three year old, as it had had over me as a thirteen year old. What was it about the images that appealed to him? Was it the strength of the hero? Was it the heroism itself? Was it its depiction of a bygone age, that had never actually been? I didn't ask him these questions, though: I just witnessed, warmly, his enthusiastic gaze, on those images that, once, long ago, had held a fascination for me, too.

Our children are much more like us, than we might imagine. Not only do they, of course, look like us...but the choices that they make, the tastes that they show, the things that they like to do and be, are often remarkably similar too. In a way, this is a very good thing - for it means that, as he grows up, I can share his interests supported as they are, by remembrance that I, too, had once been interested in the same things. We are, therefore, bonded together, by these shared sympathies, and likings.

You may be wondering why I have a series of Conan books in my house. Well, they are there for nostalgia. They are not the original ones that once I read - for those are back in England. They are another set that I came across - and found myself purchasing out of a desire to have something of my youth. They reminded me of the boy I had once been.

Now, of course, I don't think I could bring myself to read them. I don't think I would connect to them in the way I once did. They seem too distant from me now. Also, I have so many other things to do, that I don't find the time for the simple pleasures of reading fiction. Thus, I tend not to read fiction, anymore. If I do read, it is usually factual material.

Yet, it is good to have them around the house. It makes me feel that somewhere, the boy I used to be, is still around somewhere too. Only, now he is three - and likes two covers in particular!

(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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IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals.If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)