Drama at the restaurant.

Tiarnan is a funny boy: just watching him is a form of entertainment all of its own.

On the 20th May, Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, was sat with his brothers in a malay restaurant. He duly waited with watchful eyes and eager stomach, for the food that would come. (He is little, but a big eater).

In due course, roti pratas (a traditional, circular, fried bread) arrived and were placed in front of his brothers Ainan and Fintan. (For whatever reason they are fond of this unhealthy fare).

Tiarnan looked at the empty table in front of him, then looked across at the full table in front of them, in shock. His hands came out to his sides in dismay. Then he got angry...really angry, his face reddening, the cords on his neck showing. Finally, he put his head down on the table, utterly put out to have been ignored in this way.

His mother was a little concerned to see him so upset, yet there was nothing she could do, for Tiarnan can't eat wheat - it doesn't agree with him. He knows this, of course and has never been allowed to eat roti prata. Ever is it his lot to watch his brothers eat this oddly prized food.

So, there Tiarnan lay, slumped across the table sulking. Suddenly, a pair of mischievous eyes looked sidelong from the top of his arms, to see just who was watching him. At once it was clear: it had all been a performance - Tiarnan was playing with his emotions, to make a point. He had managed to convince everyone that he meant it - until that final moment, when he could no longer resist the temptation to peek.

What a funny boy. Perhaps he should be an actor - for he is certainly showing the core skills and dispositions of one. We will see: right now, he is a most entertaining toddler to have around.

(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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The youngest actor in the world

At what age can a child be an actor? Well, if you watch children carefully, you may find a surprising answer. At least, in the case of some children.

On Christmas Day, Tiarnan, 23 months, gave me a present. It wasn't the kind of present you wrap carefully in gaudy paper - it was the kind of present that arrives unexpectedly, a spontaneous gift made of nothing more than the child's ways, themselves.

Tiarnan was in the TV area of the house, the "lounge" where people sit, talk and watch films. He spotted a notebook on the coffee table, and picked it up. What he did then was startling. He began to walk around the room with a pacing, stride and manner that could only be described as "Daddy-like". He adopted an earnest, abstracted expression as if deep in thought and leafed through the notebook, as if searching for something. Meanwhile, his face was not idle: he puffed out his cheeks, to give them a fuller look, a, let's be frank, fatter, middle-aged look.

He seemed to be no-one other than his father. He had captured my "essence" with astonishing accuracy. There, before us, was a little Daddy toddler version.

Tiarnan had made an unconscious imitation and interpration of his Daddy, when he picked up that notebook. The notebook was mine and I think he was rendering an impression of how I am when I have an idea.

We asked him to do it again, but he wouldn't. He just turned away in shyness and self-consciousness. This is clearly the kind of thing he will do when he doesn't realize that he is being observed.

The incident left me sure of one thing, though. Tiarnan has it in him to be an actor, if he so wishes. He managed to capture the expressed personality of another person such that that person was recognizable in his chosen behaviour. To do that at just 23 months old is quite something. He did it instinctively, too - and I believe all the best actors are instinctive (as are all the best artists, of any kind).

(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.)

Childhood imagination and acting on the stage

Yesterday, I had the chance to see Fintan in a stage performance. It was not a theatrical show, as such, but more of a guided theatrical performance, with the help of their teacher.

Seeing Fintan transform from a child into a rocket, then a moon buggy, then an astronaut, and an airplane and back to a child again, told me much about the quality of his inner imaginative life.

Fintan was very committed to each action, each role, each image that he had to portray. He was very expressive, physically, in how he relayed the meaning of what he had been asked to do - and he was very, very enthusiastic. Above all, it was his imagination that was clear from his work. There was great physical detail in his imagining of the roles he was to portray - careful placing of body, arm, hand and face to give just the right meaning to what he intended. There was nothing half-hearted about what he did: it was clear that he both enjoyed it and was good at it.

Other kids of his age showed fair imagination, too (four year olds).

Yet, what was really telling, for me, was what happened next. We waited to see the performance of the five and six year olds. The contrast was clear. The older kids were more capable with words - more at ease with their use - but there was something dreadfully missing. Someone had stolen their imaginations. There was a marked reduction in imaginative power, creative commitment - and, compared to Fintan, detail of performance, in the older kids. I was surprised at this. I had expected to see a steady development of ability - a progression to higher things. But that is not what I could clearly see up on the stage. I saw more use of words and less use of body. I saw a lot of talk at the expense of expressiveness, imagination, creative daring, commitment, enthusiasm, insight and simple stage presence. Fintan showed all of these qualities at four - and his agemates showed more of them than the older kids. It was an odd and unsettling realization. Somehow, it seems, that children lose something as they get older: they lose their "childish" imaginations - but they don't gain anything worthwhile in return. Where the younger kids were fluid and fun, the older kids were stiff and dull. It was sad to see.

I have not had the chance to see this comparison in other cultures and races. But it may be general - and if so, it is a worry. Clearly, in this education system at least, the children are rapidly losing the very quality we would most want to see flourish: their creative imaginations. Not that alone, but they are losing it very early on. I saw a marked difference between four year olds and five/six year olds. A decline should not be noticeable over such a short time - but it was. Perhaps we should look for a different place and way to school Fintan - and Tiarnan - before they, too, are rigidified.

Then, again, it may not just be the school. It might be a natural process. Or it could be the whole culture. Whatever is to blame, it is most obvious that young children are losing their imaginations at a very young age.

You may say I didn't see enough children. Well, I did. There were two groups of about fifteen children each. The difference between the typical performance of the four year olds and the typical performance of the five/six year olds was marked. There was no doubt about it.

I really wonder at what schools do for children: do they open their minds up - or close them down?

This experience has really set me to wondering.

(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.)

Fintan, the natural actor

Fintan, three, likes to dress up. He is our local "super-hero". Sometimes he is a Power Ranger, sometimes he is Superman, which is his favourite.

A couple of months ago, he was dressed as Superman, in our locality. We had just been shopping and were walking across the playground. There were many parents, maids and children there. Little children remarked on the advent of Superman. The adults, though, were funny: several of them cried out - "Superman! Hello!" or a variant. What impressed me was Fintan's reaction. He just gave a little nod to acknowledge them, as if it were his due, to be so called.

I understood then, that Fintan was very much an inhabitant of the role, as any good - or natural - actor should be. In donning the cape and elastic clothing of our superhuman hero, he had also adopted the belief that in some way he was Superman.

The nod was so natural, that he gave in acceptance of their comment, so appropriate, that all thought of laughter was stilled in me. Imagination like that requires respect - and is so often lost as a child proceeds through childhood into adolescence.

I hope Fintan, three, retains this imaginative quality - and makes use of it in an interesting manner.