How children see the world.

Children have two eyes, just like you or me...but they don’t use them the same way. What children see, in the world, is often markedly different from what we do, as adults.

Recently, I had the opportunity to take my children to a film set. It was outdoors. Now, I fully expected my two youngest kids – Fintan, 8 and Tiarnan 5, to be most interested in the actors, the cameras, the whole paraphernalia of film-making...but no: what they did instead of stand in awe at all these things, was to proceed to dig rocks out of the ground. Yes. They found the local rocks of much greater interest than the other matters proceeding all around them.

At one point, Tiarnan ran excitedly up to me:

“Daddy, daddy...you’ve got to come and see!”

His excitement was acute. What great wonder had he found?

“We’ve found yellow soil and red soil!”, he announced.

I suppressed a smile and followed him to where he led.

He pointed to a hole in the ground which he and Fintan had created by the simple expedient of removing a rock. Its imprint remained. There, sure enough, were seams of red soil – and yellow soil – both colours rich and deep.

I looked interested and smiled approvingly and left them to their interest.

Later on, I took them to see a fight scene amidst the rocks of a quarry. After the scene was over, I asked them: “Could you see the battle?”

Fintan looked a little awkward.

“We couldn’t because of the Sun,” he began, trying out his first excuse, then he looked down and across at Tiarnan. “We found some rocks...”, he trailed off.

“We were digging up the rocks!”, confessed Tiarnan.

It was funny to see their odd enthusiasm for the local rocks. However, upon reflection, I understand it. They had never been to a quarry before. All their lives they had lived in relatively manicured environments – but here, in this quarry, they were faced with a raw, rough, brutal landscape, with strange rocks jutting out of the ground. They had never seen anywhere like it. Now, they had seen people before. They had seen cameras before. They had seen fight scenes many times on TV before. What they had never seen, however, were rocks like the ones strewn all around them – nor a landscape so desolate and lifeless. To them, that was the true wonder of this “film set” – the very place it was set in.

The funny thing, though, was that the only two people to really appreciate the location, deeply, were my two little sons. They saw in each rock, something wonderful, something strange. The adults, however, just saw awkward bumps underfoot to be avoided. Not one adult did what my sons were doing: taking a close look at the rocks, their shape, their form, their substance. In a way, I suppose the only two people who came to a full appreciation and understanding of this uncanny landscape were my two little sons: they are the only people who really studied it, at all.
The adults, on the other hand, were focussed on the human things and the technical things – on their acting, their costume, their make-up, their motion and emotion, the camera work and the lighting. The actual nature of what lay underfoot was ignored by all except my sons.

So, that day, there were two sets: one that the adults saw – and one that my children saw. My sons saw the place as it actually was. The adults saw it, in another way – as a backdrop to their filmed events.

It is funny to reflect that, in a very real way, only my sons actually attained a real grasp of their environment. Everyone else just took it for granted – and labelled it, reflexively, as “rocky landscape...enquire no more”.

When they got home, I asked my sons what the best thing about going to the film set was:

“The rocks!”, they both cried out, at once.

They had learnt something – not the lesson I had thought they would learn - but they had learnt something about the world. I had, inadvertently, taught them another set of lessons, altogether, than the one I had hoped to teach them. Or should I say, they had taught themselves lessons other than the ones I had hoped they would imbibe. I think that their lesson was a better one to learn – for it arose from their own interests in the world and what is important in it, for them. They saw what they wanted to see and learned what they wanted to learn. They picked out what was newest, strangest and most unusual for them – and that, unexpectedly for me, was the rocks underfoot. In so doing they taught me, too, to realize that my world and the way I see it, is not theirs. They have their own view of the world and their own categorizations of what is important and worthy and what is not: actors are not, rocks are...at least to them, at this young age. I have come to understand that I mustn’t assume their view on things – I must observe what turns out to be their view – and to anticipate, in an open way, that this may be very different from my expectation. This, however, is good. It is refreshing to see that their view is different to my own. That is a good sign, for it means that they are growing up in an environment that allows them to nurture their own viewpoints – some families probably don’t do that.

I am left with a funny thought. In years to come, should I ask them about that film set visit, they will most probably not remember any of the things most people would remember from a film set experience – but they will be able to tell me about the types of rocks they found there. That is a delightfully quirky thought.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Transformers and the analytical mind.

Ainan, 10, likes computer games as much as any other young boy. However, his approach to playing them, might not be as common.

About a week ago, I noted something odd. Every time Ainan played his Transformers computer game on the PS3, he would write down some numbers.

"What are you doing Ainan?"

"Oh, I am compiling statistics on the relative performance of different Transformers, under different combat conditions."

I paused a little at that. Most kids would just play the game.

"Why are you doing that?"

"I just want to find out which are the best at doing various things."

His attention was not on me. It was on the numbers he was compiling. I left him to it.

This little incident, though, made me think about what life was like for a child scientist. The need to analyze, examine and understand is ever present, in such a child - and even invades their everyday activities. Indeed, I think that doing something like Ainan was doing, last week, is indicative of a mind with a scientific bent. Any child who pauses to analyze his world, to put its nature into numbers or laws or observations, is a child who is thinking like a scientist. So, even if they have never actually done such a thing in the context of a science lesson in school, if you find them doing it in their everyday life, then, assuredly, you have a young scientist on your hands.

Ainan is always analyzing his world. He does so, I think, without even realizing that he is doing so. That he should so unconsciously sit down and turn a game of Transformers into an exercise in scientific observation, is just typical. Ainan, of course, wouldn't see anything unusual about it. To him, it would be a natural product of his curiosity about the game world, to do so.

This kind of playful curiosity about the world and its nature - even if applied to an imaginary game world, such as Transformers, is good preparation for real science. The very same processes that are used in science, are being used by Ainan in his analysis of the game. The only difference between that and what others would declare as "real science" is the subject matter. Indeed, the very same thought processes and analyses could be applied to a real world experiment, in a different context.

Yet, I wonder: how would other children view Ainan's analytical interest in the underlying power structure of the game? Would they think it acceptable, or odd? Or would they, indeed, be interested in the results for how it might inform their own game playing? Would they, too, see it as a natural extension of a child's interest in playing a game well, for enjoyment?

I will probably never know, since I don't think I am going to ask another child about it. For now, however, I will just let Ainan be and let him enjoy his analysis of the Transformers world. Does it really matter how many - or how few - other children might do the same kind of analysis? Not really. It only matters that the task has meaning and enjoyment for Ainan. Any other consideration is unnecessary.

Happy game playing Ainan.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Tiarnan and the public bar.

Today, Tiarnan passed by a bar and peered inside. He saw people of most ages, sizes and races (except for one) gathered together with pint glasses in their hands, sipping beer and chatting. We carried on walking.

A minute or so later he pointed back at the bar and said that he wanted "susu" - which is Malay for milk. We both laughed. He had concluded that, since it was a place where others were drinking their (unknown) drink, that he would be able to order "susu" for himself, there.

As he asked for milk, I had this image of Tiarnan, the toddler, clutching a glass of milk, surrounded by a bunch of beer-drinking adult onlookers. Funny.

It is interesting to watch Tiarnan's social understanding on display: the way he speaks of the world, tells us his perception. What is notable is that he is usually basically right in his interpretation of the meaning of occurrences and places - even though he has very little experience from which to reason. I think babies learn and understand more deeply, more quickly and more correctly than is generally understood: at least the ones I have observed do. It is very rewarding to watch them piece together their understanding of the world. So much of it is of their own deduction - very little is actually imparted by direct instruction from the parents, I realize. It would be unfair of me to take too much credit for their comprehension of the world: it is largely down to the children themselves. It always was, I suppose.

When Tiarnan got home, he got his "susu" alright.

(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, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)