Youth Olympic Games 2010, IOC

Recognizing gifted athletes, and giving them opportunities, is just as important as recognizing gifted intellectuals and giving them opportunities, for growth, too. Sadly, many societies (outside of America, which already nurtures the athletically gifted among them), neglect those of athletic ability.

Singapore is one such country. For most of Singapore's history, sports have played little role in society, though some sporting figures have managed to make a career. The reason for this neglect has been a pragmatic one: sports were not regarded as financially rewarding. There was no significant home market for sports and so no high regard was given to those of sporting ability. It was seen as something without real significance. That, however, has begun to change in recent years. Indeed, in the year 2000, Singapore launched a Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FST) in order to recruit overseas sporting talent, while young, give them residency, and launch them as Singaporean athletes. This was a bid to activate Singapore's sporting scene and place them on the world stage. It has had varying degrees of success and should be the subject of another post, at another time.

Singapore, today, has indicated its intention to hold the first Youth Olympic Games, in Singapore, in 2010. It is one of ten nations bidding for the right to hold this event. The other cities (nations) are: Algiers (Algeria), Athens (Greece), Moscow (Russia), Turin (Italy), Bangkok (Thailand), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Poznan (Poland). Bidders have until October 26 to finalize their bids and plans.

The event is, according to Ng Ser Miang, Singapore's International Olympic Committee member, intended to "interest and appeal" to the young. To do so, traditional sports have been shelved or modified. Basketball will make an appearance as a three person game on a half-sized court. There could be beach wrestling. You read that correctly: wrestling on the beach. There will be a sailing event with specially adapted boats, "youth class boats", that cater for the strengths, abilities and limitations of younger athletes. The events are designed for athletes who are 14 to 18 years old.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has indicated that there will be a departure from the nationalism evident at all adult Olympic Games - for no national flags or anthems will be permitted at this one. Only the Olympic flag and Olympic anthem will be played at the medal award ceremony.

Mr. Ng Ser Miang said that the Youth Olympic Games would help educate youth on the core Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship. He also suggested it could steer competitors away from over-training and doping.

Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Permanent Secretary Niam Chiang Meng, Chairman of the Singapore 2010 bid committee said that Singapore's good track record in organizing events quickly would help it secure the event. This point is a fair one, since there will only be two and a half years to prepare for the event once the result is announced.

Now, I am happy to hear of this development, for it offers young athletes a new focus to their training and aspirations. It is a long way from childhood to the adult Olympic stage - placing this new stepping stone along the path will allow young athletes to focus themselves and compete against their age-mates and gain some idea of the wisdom of pursuing an adult athletic career once they fully mature.

Not that alone. Allowing young athletes an opportunity to win recognition for their talents, earlier in their careers, may allow them to make better use of the few short years that an athlete can truly say that they are at their best. There will be less wasted time for those athletes who succeed at this junior level. Sponsorship and support could be forthcoming much earlier on. I feel, also, that many more athletes are likely to develop their talents, what with a new arena to focus on and develop their skills for. It is possible that this new IOC initiative could have a wide-ranging impact on the development of athletes around the world. The IOC is to be commended.

The Youth Olympic Games is likely to spur many young athletes to train that bit harder and aspire that bit harder, such that more of them become athletes and win successful careers. The opportunities a win at the Youth Olympic Games could open up, could change their lives so much for the better.

Gift, of all kinds, is precious. Any initiative that is likely to give greater opportunity to the gifted, whatever their gift might be, whether intellectual, athletic, artistic, or other, is to be supported. The very richness and substance of a society depends on offering the best of opportunities to all who might have the gifts to avail themselves of them.

I, for one, will tune in, in 2010, to see the athletes of tomorrow, in their earliest public performances. I wish them - and the IOC - luck in this new endeavour. May it become an established athletic event.

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

A child's book shelf

There is a bookshelf, in our house, in fact, more than one. The child's book shelf I wish to speak of, is by the wall in the living room. It is of an unusual appearance, being a furniture book shelf, that is round in design, not rectangular.

Now, this bookshelf doesn't have a ladder leaning against it. Indeed, there is no ladder accessible in our house (from the days we found Tiarnan at the top of it, of his own accord, while a matter of several months old).

About two months ago, I heard a little squeal coming from the living room. When I looked in the room, I found that Tiarnan, who had been quietly playing, had found an altogether unorthodox use for a bookshelf. There was a strange new addition to the top shelf of my book shelf. There, balancing carefully on top of the books, was my son, Tiarnan (eighteen months at the time). Somehow, he had climbed to the top of the bookshelf - and had done so without, as I could see, knocking off any books.

Once he had got to the top, he found that going down didn't look so inviting - hence the squeal. I reached up and took him down.

This is just another adventure in our daily life with a little spiderman/spiderbaby/spidertoddler. With him, nothing is safe from being climbed. So far, he has yet to fall off anything - but I really don't want there ever to be a first time. He attempts to climb everything that looks even vaguely possible - and always succeeds, as far as I can see. Perhaps he was born to be a mountaineer (or comes from mountain-living stock!) - for he just can't stop climbing.

Although he enjoys climbing, I would rather he took up a safer pursuit - like reading the books, instead of climbing on the bookshelves (he does like books, actually, too).

If you have a climbing baby, no doubt you, too, have had the experience of finding your child in strange places. With Tiarnan, this is a fairly regular occurrence. Oh well...

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

Tiarnan shows his athleticism

On August 31st, Syahidah took Tiarnan to the playground. Like many nineteen month old kids, he rather likes this.

Tiarnan climbed up the stairs to the "castle" as I like to call it: the set of play features that are embedded in the ground of every playground in the world, that I have ever seen, (in one form or another). This particular one included a slide, which could be reached by quite a number of steps, up from the rest of the "castle".

Tiarnan duly climbed up each and every step until he got to the top of the slide - and then he launched himself into the air and slid all the way down. He thought this was great and as soon as his feet touched the ground he was up and running and back clambering up the stairs to make his way back up to the top of the slide again. Once there, again, he launched himself into the air - and so on.

Syahidah watched him do this with growing amazement, for what seemed at first an everyday matter, became ever more remarkable as Tiarnan's non-stop run-climb-slide-run-climb-slide...just went on and on.

He must have done this over twenty times - which is one hell of a lot of steps and considerable running - before she decided that it was time to go. Tiarnan, though, was yet abuzz with energy.

It was in seeing him do this that Syahidah came to realize quite just how much stamina is hidden away inside Tiarnan's little body.

Sometimes, it seems, athletes come in small packages.

(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.)

Child safety: window grilles, a life-saver

When we first bought our apartment on the top floor of an apartment block, it had beautiful uninterrupted views over a leafy area of Singapore, laden with old trees. Wonderful, you might have thought - but we didn't, not after our initial delight had been ambushed by a second thought. What was that second thought? That it was an awfully long way to fall down.

You see, the flat had balconies with windows that opened freely. An ambitious, athletic child could easily climb out of the windows - and fly briefly through the air to the ground below. We had young children to consider, so we went to considerable expense to obstruct our pristine views of a beautiful vista with what might seem like an ugly, black, gridwork of metallic grilles.

For a long time, they seemed to serve no purpose but to prevent us from fully enjoying the vantage of our apartment view - until the other day. Guess what my wife found, when she walked into the children's bedroom? Tiarnan, fifteen months, clinging to the grille, half-way between ceiling and floor, as they covered the open windows. Somehow he had climbed up a sheer perspex balcony covering, with no holds, to over three feet above the ground where the window grilles began. Then he had managed to pull his weight up and climb up to the open windows, covered only by the grilles. Had there been no grille, Tiarnan would have discovered the uglier side of gravity, pretty quickly.

So, if you have young children and a great view in an apartment on the second floor or above - don't hesitate to get grilles fitted. Yes, I know they are expensive - and ugly - but there will come a time when your children are able to climb up to open windows - and if that day comes and you do not have grilles, it could be the last day of your child's life. So get grilles, ugly or not.

Have a safe day - and watch those climbing babies. There is now nothing that Tiarnan won't climb - and no height or vantage he can't seem to reach. So, watch yours, too.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, fifteen months, or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and five 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, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults. Thanks.)

Fintan, the athletic child

Fintan, three, is a robust child. He has a stocky build inherited from his father and has been known, since young, for his surprising strength. That, however, is not what I wish to talk about.

A couple of months ago, Syahidah, my wife, went for a jog. Fintan insisted on coming along. His mother argued that he should stay at home, since she would be running and he would not be able to keep up. Still, he insisted on coming. Syahidah resigned herself to being unable to jog as she wished, with a three year old tagging along, and let him join her.

When she got to her "track" - a waterside location, along which she could jog up and down both sides of a waterway, with bridges crossing it - she started off, at a gentle pace and Fintan jogged along with her. She thought he might fall behind, but he didn't. Seeing that he had no trouble, she adopted her usual pace and jogged in her accustomed rhythm. Fintan jogged along with her, his shorter legs having to stride somewhat more often - but still he kept up with her. She wondered how long he would be able to do this...so she kept jogging and he kept up alongside her. So, her run went on, with Fintan keeping pace. He never faltered. He never fell behind. He never complained - he just kept pace with his mother. In the end, she ran her normal course - without having to accommodate Fintan at all. He ran with her a distance that was enough to leave her well-exercised - and which, assuredly, must have been quite far for such a young child.

Knowing Fintan as I do, this performance was as much a product of his determination, as of any athletic endowment. It should be noted that he hadn't run with her before like this - and so his ability to keep up was not the result of consistent training. It was the product of whatever native stamina he possesses - and a determination not to fail to pace his mother.

There is in Fintan a strong heart - of both kinds: the heart of the body and the heart of the mind.

(If you would like to learn more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and four months, or Tiarnan, fourteen 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, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

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.)

Tiarnan walks downstairs, unassisted

On December 4th 2006, I caught sight of Tiarnan walking down the stairs unassisted. He stepped carefully from step to step and showed no evidence of fear - just an intensity at each movement, always appraising the steps with an attentive eye. Tiarnan is ten months old, so this is unusually young to walk downstairs. Needless to say, he didn't fall. Incidentally, for those who don't know babies well, walking downstairs is much harder and requires much more control, than walking upstairs - which he has already mastered.

At times he wants to climb into his cot - just like his elder brother Ainan used to do when he was eight months. He has long wanted to do this. When we catch sight of him, we stop him from doing so - for we are more concerned for the dangers of falling. It would be interesting to see, however, if like Ainan, he was able to do such a thing.

Tiarnan is proving to be very athletic and attempts things that show a certain bravado. Part of our apartment is split level. Tiarnan has devised a unique way of travelling from one level to the other: climb over a wall that divides them - and drop down into a couch, before proceeding to the ground from the sofa. He has done this quite a few times. At first I was wary, convinced he would hurt himself - but now that I have seen him do it several times, without mishap, I just watch and let him do it. He is happy to do so. He first did this when he was nine months old.

(If you would like to read more about Tiarnan or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, 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, intelligence, IQ, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Baby Tiarnan walks upstairs

Two days ago, baby Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley, took a calculated risk: he walked upstairs, three steps, on his own.

Long has he eyed the stairs and seemed prepared to walk up them...but only today did he gather his courage and do so. He is nine months old.

I was nearby in case he fell, but there was no need for my caution. I get the feeling with him, that he could have done such a thing a long time ago - but some early falls dissuaded him from being too adventurous too early. That and the hurtling comets that are his older brothers in the house, always threatening to knock him over at any time.

He was buzzing in excitement at his achievement. Sweet boy.

This follows his mastery of crawling upstairs at five weeks and two months - and crawling downstairs at eight months exactly.

To read more on these physical developments, of motor movement go to:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/09/baby-tiarnan-crawls-downstairs.html

For more links on Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley and his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, six, please go to:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of child prodigy, child genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general.

Baby Tiarnan crawls downstairs.

Today Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley crawled downstairs, on his own, though watched carefully by his mother. He is eight months old, today, exactly. This follows his first crawling upstairs at five months and two weeks. Crawling downstairs is not easy: you should try it, yourself, adult or not - but be prepared to call an ambulance...it is really not easy at all.

If there is an award for "Bravery while crawling", I think he should get it. For the past three months he has assayed the stairs, mastering climbing it, quickly, after his first attempt...but, although he tried to crawl down it soon after, he would stop at the first step, after having placed his hands on the step below: you see, he had noted the problem - how not to fall down the stairs, head first.

Well, today he solved that one. He turned around and went down backwards. Hurrah!

(For more on Tiarnan and Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy, and Fintan Nadym Cawley, a natural leader, go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html )

Earliest walker, earliest talker, earliest runner

A cot is a place of safety for a baby. A place in which a baby may be placed and left alone, leaving the parents with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the baby could not be anywhere else, but within its' cage-like bars.

This supposition used to be our own, too. But, when Ainan was eight months old, we would find him running about the house, after he had been placed in his cot. He would laugh when we saw him, knowing that he was being mischievous. Sometimes, he would then run back to his cot, and climb back in, as he had climbed out. At only eight months, he was athletic enough to climb into and out of his cot, at will.

Our naivety at our son's abilities was so great that when a representative of a child development company saw our four month old son crawling around the house and said: "You have a super baby!", we asked: "How do you know?" He was silent in reply, which in retrospect was unfair of him: it would have been nice to get an experienced perspective on our child instead of stumbling forward unawares, as we did.

At six and a half months, Ainan was walking confidently, freely and steadily, without difficulty. He was running by eight months. Note that the average child doesn't run until fifteen months. He moved from one level of achievement to another, and learned the new skill at high level, almost at once. He walked as if he had always walked, ran as if he had always run.

Is Ainan the earliest walker on Earth? We don't know...the information on the topic is sparse, but we haven't found an earlier example of motor development, on the net. It seems certain that he is the earliest runner, since that skill came very quickly upon the heels of walking. His brothers, too, are among the earliest walkers. Fintan Nadym Cawley, his brother of three, was crawling at six months and walking at eight months. Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley was crawling at four months and one week and started standing, while holding onto household objects, within two weeks. (Note that an average baby won’t do this until at least eight months.) He also began to crawl upstairs, unaided, at five months and two weeks, on the 6th July 2006. (Babies are typically twelve months old before they master stairs.) A week later he was able to squat down, in a controlled fashion, from a standing position. (An average baby tries this when they are nine or ten months.)

I have more detailed records for Tiarnan than for Ainan, because when Ainan was doing these things, we weren't really aware that they were remarkable: it was just the way he was.

Not only are they the earliest walkers, they are the earliest talkers, too: Ainan speaking his first words after a couple of weeks of life, Tiarnan in his second month. Again, we find no earlier example.

Any parent of a gifted child bears a responsibility to help them become whatever they can be: if my words can help some readers gain a perspective on their own gifted child, I would be pleased.

(For further posts on Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy, and his gifted brothers, go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

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