Tiarnan invents a new way to climb

Yesterday, Tiarnan, fourteen months, did something I have never heard a baby doing. He walked up the stairs backwards.

He started at the bottom, and reversed up two flights of stairs, clearly enjoying himself throughout until he got to the top.

This showed me something interesting about his motor skills: he does not need to see where he is going, anymore, to be surefooted - he has that unconscious, internal sense of where his limbs are and does not seem to need the constant feedback of vision that a young baby normally needs.

He didn't miss a step. He didn't stumble and he didn't fall - he just climbed backwards all the way up to the top. He did so quite quickly too.

In this action, I see Tiarnan's creative imagination at work - always seeking a new way to do an old thing; or a new way to do something he has never done before. Many children, having learnt to conquer the stairs, for instance, would, thereafter use the same method each time. Tiarnan is different: he has a need to experiment, to try a variation or find a new theme. It is in little things like this that a baby reveals their creative identity. If your baby is always trying to do things in new ways, then that baby is a creative child, who could and should grow up to be a creative adult.

I wonder what led Tiarnan to try this: what wondering thought did he have to see what it would be like to do so?

What a curious boy.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, fourteen months, or Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months (today), 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, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children. Thanks.)

Tiarnan invents the practical joke.

Many a time, Tiarnan has observed Ainan's dislike of insects.

Ainan jumps at the sudden appearance of a cockroach, or the like, spooked by them in a primordial fashion. It is the kind of instinct many of us are born with, but grow out of through over-exposure to the situation. Ainan, though, has yet to have the time to grow out of this basic instinct, this fear of the unknown, or the alien.

Tiarnan, however, does not fear them. No animal seems to excite fear, at all in him. All that is excited is curiosity.

About a month ago, Syahidah saw Tiarnan put a grasshopper, which he had found, lying dead, and picked up, fearlessly to play with, into one of Ainan's school shoes. She scolded him for doing so, and took it out. That was the end of it, she thought.

Later on, as Ainan walked with his mother, he turned to her and said: "Mummy, there is something in my shoe.", there was trepidation in his voice.

Syahidah took off his shoe - and, sure enough, there was a grasshopper inside. Tiarnan had replaced it, when his mummy wasn't looking.

To distract Ainan, Syahidah at once launched into a tall tale about her own childhood and how something similar had happened (whether or not it was true I do not know...that wasn't the purpose: distraction was.) Ainan's attention was drawn to the story and away from the dead horror in his shoe and he was able to cope with the discovery.

Knowing Tiarnan, this was done out of a mischievous sense of humour, for he laughs at many a sophisticated thing.

What I find impressive about this, is that, on seeing the grasshopper, he did not ignore it. Nor did he try to eat it. But he planned the creation of his first practical joke, with it. He must have known that Ainan would react with horror on seeing it. He must have seen some humour in surprising his older brother in this way...and he must also have understood that, in placing the grasshopper in the shoe that it would remain there until Ainan stepped into it. There was planning, dark humour, mischief and imagination in this act, all rolled into one. What is also notable is that he did not desist when his mother told him off - but that he had replaced the grasshopper, as soon as his mother's back was turned. All of this indicates quite a degree of sophistication for a twelve month old baby.

I wonder where this dark humour and liking of practical jokes will take him?

I think I had better start checking my shoes, before I put them on, lest he repeat the joke! (He hasn't so far.)

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

Fintan the fashion designer, inventor of clothes

Fintan, three, is an interesting boy. He is strongly built, and even stronger than he looks, yet he has an aesthetic eye, responding with enthusiasm to that which is beautiful in his environment. Perhaps he will be a kind of artist one day.

On Sunday, we went to the beach...the East Coast, to be precise. This might sound like a bit of a journey, but on an island like Singapore, it is not far to go.

The beach was well-provisioned with restaurants and we chose to eat at an Indian restaurant there.

The most interesting part of the meal was not the food, but Fintan. The aircon in the venue was rather aggressive so it was a little too cold. Fintan had a solution. He took a beach towel from the back of his brother's stroller and wrapped it about himself and his upper body in the fashion of a toga. He had never seen a toga, but he could see how to turn a towel into a toga by appropriate wrapping and a single knot. I don't know how old the original inventor of a toga had been...but Fintan recreated it, at three, in a time of need.

Thus we ate the Indian meal accompanied by our young improvised Roman, throughout. The odd thing is, it suited him, his robust body looking well by association with all the Roman images we have seen of statues in the past. I think he would make a good Emperor. A pity there are no more empires in need of an imperial gaze. Ah well...

One thing should be noted. Fintan is very fashion conscious. He chooses the colour and design of his clothes very carefully and will not be seen to wear clothes that don't fit his aesthetic - indeed he gets upset if there is nothing to match his inner requirement. In the light of this, it is very telling that Fintan looked good in his toga, after he had made it. It indicates, to me, that he was able to imagine the end result and so proceed to his desired end: an aesthetic look. He has been aware of his clothing and appearance since very young - his first year.

(If you would like to know more about Fintan, or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, gifted education, intelligence, IQ, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The importance of play for children

In browsing on the internet, I have come across several sites that list incredibly packed timetables for children. I found these really surprising. You see, I never make a timetable for my children: I let them, largely speaking, do as they please.

My toddler, Tiarnan, ten months investigates every nook and cranny of our house. Fintan plays with his brothers and his toys. Ainan chooses either to play with them, or to indulge himself in mental games: drawing molecules, inventing reactions, writing little books, inventing devices. For Ainan this is play - it is what he chooses to do. Never did I require of him that he do these things. He spontaneously does these things of his own accord. The idea that one might timetable a day packed with intellectual activities for one's children is a strange one to me - for it takes away the fun of discovery. Children are able to discover their interests and their world, by themselves, if you let them. From what I have seen in my children, their gifts and talents will emerge naturally as they engage with the world.

(If you would like to read more of my gifted children, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, Fintan, three, or Tiarnan, a baby, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-blogspot.html I also write of gifted education, intelligence, IQ, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

At no stage did either of Ainan's parents sit down and say: "You are going to be scientist...here, do this." He naturally chose to do things that lead us to observe that he IS a scientist. All that Ainan is, is emerging naturally from Ainan. I don't think that any other way would be anything but forced and false, resulting in a child at odd's with its own essential nature.

The child knows what the child is: let the child become that, then.

(If you would like to read more of my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley and 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, savant, the creatively gifted, adult genius, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks)

The inventor: electrical, mechanical, chemical

Have you ever seen a blueprint? I see them most days. They may not always be written in blue, but blueprints they are. You see, Ainan Celeste Cawley, my child prodigy son who has just turned seven, has had a strange habit for several years now: inventing things.

He tends to draw detailed diagrams of his inventions, with labels and arrows. The inventions are of various types: those that depend on electrical principles, mechanical principles and chemical principles. Often he mixes all three principles together. Some of his devices are very interesting indeed. However, owing to the need for intellectual privacy, I am only going to speak in generalities about them.

He will sometimes do a series of drawings to show the device in operation, capturing it as it changes through various states. He comes to me with these drawings and adds further verbal explanations of their principles. I sometimes get lost in the torrent of explanation - but there is always good scientific or technical sense in what he has to say. Basically, his devices would work, whether or not they are the most practical solution to the problem he has addressed. Some of them are highly imaginative solutions, the like of which I have not seen before. Others recreate some similar to key historical inventions - without him being aware that another has beaten him to it. Yet, this in itself, is promising - for it shows that had that other never been, Ainan would have invented it.

As I watch him draw scientific devices, I am reminded of another figure, lost in time, who had a propensity to draw scientific devices: Leonardo Da Vinci. I am left to wonder: what was Leonardo like as a child? Did he invent in childhood drawings? Did he write scientific treatises incessantly? Was he ever spouting scientific monologues, on ever changing topics?

We may never know what Leonardo Da Vinci was like as a child - but we do know that he did these things as an adult. Ainan Celeste Cawley does the same kind of thing as a child. Like all parents, I sometimes wonder what my son will become when he grows up. With him my wonderings are in the realm of science: how far will he go? Will he maintain his interest? Will this precocious scientific and technical productivity lead to great adult output?

Only the passing years will answer my questions. Yet, I can say this: just as the foundation and lower floors of a tall building determine its shape to a great extent, so too do the early years of a human life. In looking at the shape of Ainan's early deeds, it is not difficult to see an adult scientific genius to come.

That would be good to see. Carry on Ainan!

(If you would like to read more of my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven, 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, and gifted children in general.)

Ainan invents optoelectronics

On the 12th November 2006, Ainan Celeste Cawley, aged six, independently invented the idea of optoelectronics.

Ainan was musing about the problem of electronic miniaturization. "How come chips are getting smaller, every year?" He began, with earnestness. "What happens when they get too small for electrons to pass through?"

With just a single beat for thought, he came up with an answer: "They should use light, instead." He observed, "But then you need to turn it back into electrons. So, you turn electrons into light, then light into electrons - and you pass the light along optical fibre."

Ainan was proposing beginning with an electronic signal, turning it into a photonic signal, calculating, then turning it back into an electronic signal. I don't know much about technology, but that sounds a lot like opto-electronics to me.

I asked him if this was his idea and he assured me that it was: all his ideas are...but I was just checking before I reported it.

In reporting Ainan Celeste Cawley's conversations, I am often left with a dilemma. Would it interest the readers of my blog to know how he speaks and thinks...or would it turn them off from its technical nature? I am left therefore to choose matters which are more accessible. Much of what he says is a rapid patter of scientific ideas, observations, facts, theories, propositions and matters to be explored. It is simply too abundant to report: each day's report would be thousands of words of scientific jargon...and I am sure that would be too much for all but the most technical/scientific of readers. So, instead, I report snapshots in digestible sizes.

Please give me some feedback as to your tolerance of scientific reporting: can I expand upon what Ainan says, more thoroughly...would it actually be of interest? I cannot know until you tell me. Thanks.

If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy and his creative thought, and gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also speak of child prodigy, child genius, savant, the creatively gifted and gifted children in general.