How to identify a person with your eyes closed.

Ainan is a boy of many peculiar talents. He can do things which, at times, seem uncanny. A few weeks ago, he gave me insight into one of these quirks.

I had just walked into the kitchen with an empty cup in my hand.

“I knew it was you, Daddy.” He began, as if an expectation had been fulfilled.

My eyes queried him in silence.

“You see I always know who it is, if they are carrying a cup – because both you and mummy move in a different way, and so the cup clinks differently.”

I was not surprised, not because this was not surprising but because I was used to being surprised by him. Thus, I was unsurprised to be surprised, by this latest revelation.

If there is one thing that sets Ainan apart from others, besides his intelligence, it is his perception: he is so acute in his observational ability that it is, at times, a bit like living with Sherlock Holmes. He does things with his senses that one might only expect to find in Marvel comic fiction. Yet, he does it so naturally, so casually, and so effortlessly. This, of course, only emphasizes the uniqueness of his perceptions.

I walked across the kitchen and set my cup down carefully by the sink, with a new appreciation of just how much my cup was telling about me – at least to Ainan, anyway.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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.

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

Seeing the unseen.

A few weeks ago, Ainan proffered a car magazine to me.

“What do you notice about this photograph?”, he enquired, intently, his eyes filled with hidden meanings.

He was pointing at the cover.

One of the cars I recognized, immediately.

“A Bugatti Veyron is overtaking another car…”

“Is it?” he asked, his gaze directing me to look more closely.

“Yes.”, for assuredly, the Bugatti was in front of the other car. Though, of course, I had no way of knowing what would happen shortly afterwards, or what their relative velocity was – however, the photo seemed to mean what I thought it to mean.

“Dad,” began Ainan, in the tone of one about to explain something to someone who clearly did not understand, “These two cars were never in the same place.”

They sure looked pretty close to me.

“This image has been faked, Dad.”

I attended to the photo more closely – and waited for Ainan to continue.

“If you look at the Bugatti, the shadows fall here,” he pointed, “and the highlights on the paintwork, are here,” he pointed again. “This suggests that the lighting comes from over here.” His finger was suspended in space above the photograph. “However,” he continued, “if you look at the other car, the shadows are here and the lighting appears to come from here.” His finger hovered in a rather different place to the first intuited Sun. “These two cars have been taken from different images and a composite made.”

“Ah.”, I said, eloquently. “I see.”

He was right. This image was not a natural one and these cars never passed each other in the way depicted.

It should be noted, here, that the shadows and highlights Ainan pointed out, were subtle matters and not at all obvious. The shadows were quite small and very few people would have noticed what he saw so clearly. I didn’t, for one and I am generally thought of as alert.

What was on show, in this instance, was one of Ainan’s particular gifts: seeing things as they actually are, and not as he is meant to see them. Ainan is a very observant boy. The little things which no-one would ever notice, in a lifetime, are just the things he points out, and discusses, sometimes at length and detail. It seems that he is particularly difficult to fool where visual matters are concerned. Of course, this is the primary way most people observe the world, so it is a most useful attribute. Often, the only thing that might separate two scientists one “brilliant” and the other ordinary, is how effective they are at observing. History is filled with scientific advances that have, at their core, a careful observer and a subtle observation. It would be difficult to overestimate its importance as a quality – both for the scientist and, I might add, any artist, too.

This is but one occasion on which Ainan has pointed out something less than obvious about his environment – something which everyone else had overlooked. However, it gives a sense of his peculiar attentiveness. I would be most unsurprised if this characteristic leads him to produce something interesting, or unexpected, in the course of his life – something which everyone else had simply missed.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.)

Ainan's uncanny attention to detail.

Ainan has always been observant. Just how observant has become clear in recent conversations.

Ainan has been watching Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. He enjoys this for reasons that are probably quite beyond Michael Bay. Ainan has taken to analyzing the most minor detail of this film: gesture, by gesture, word by word, action by action, frame by frame, he comments on it...from memory. Then he shows me what he means. In doing this he has noticed quite a few errors in the film - even basic continuity errors. He is very perceptive at this: much more so than whoever edited this particular work together. Perhaps he could make a good living, on the side, watching films and then writing a list of all their problems.

What amazes me about all of this is that what Ainan notices often occupies just a few frames of the screen: he picks up on the most minor issues, he notices every flaw, every nuance, every intended effect and every unintended result. In one example, for instance, he pointed out that in one frame, a transformer was beginning to use its right foot to crush an enemy, in the next cut, we see the same robot has just crushed the said enemy with his left foot. Ainan saw this in the rapid blur of the Transformers battles. Anyone who has seen the film will know what I mean when I say "rapid blur". He seems to have an internal view of the film, which he plays back to himself, noticing every little problem. Perhaps he does: perhaps he sees it all in his inner eye and is able to reflect on it. It certainly seems that way when he talks about it: he seems to be seeing it as he speaks.

Of course, this degree of and detail of observation skill are very useful in many more important issues than watching a film. They could make him a very good scientist - or if his interests develop in another way, artist. After all, one of the best observers in history, was no other than Leonardo da Vinci. So, observation skill is not a minor gift, but a very important substrate on which many other achievements can rest.

I can't say at this time what use Ainan might put this observation skill to, but I can say this: whatever he does, I am sure it will astonish people, who actually get the chance to hear him speak and think on his feet. For, in some ways, there is no more surprising a thing, than to just listen to what he actually manages to notice. For me, however, I am used to this kind of thing from him, but to many, who have not, it would be a real shock.

Happy looking at the world, Ainan. I hope you continue to see in it, what others miss. Perhaps that will be one pillar of who you become, one day: actually seeing, truly, what is in the world.

(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.

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.)

The superiority of young children.

In speaking to my children, I am often struck by the thought that children are superior to adults. Today, for instance, Tiarnan and Fintan were discussing Transformers. Now, we had all seen the show...once...together, several months ago. Yet, it seemed to me that my young sons saw far more in it, than I did...and I am not an unobservant adult.

Tiarnan and Fintan discussed the minor details of each character: they knew their names, their weapons, their strategies, their relative power, who would most likely beat whom, who was a goodie, who was a baddie...they knew the most minor of matters about these fictional characters - yet, somehow, they had picked this up, within the time of one viewing of the film.

This thought came to me when Tiarnan noted that "Demolisher" had no "laser weapons"...and could only physically strike objects. He then showed me, with his hands, how Demolisher would attack something. He was so alive to the most minor of details that I understood, then, that he saw so much more than any adult would - and remembered it, too. Both Fintan and Tiarnan possess a detailed visual memory of the film and its characters and can seem to revisit each character and its actions quite readily. That, to me, seems something an adult would not, normally, be able to do.

This is not the first time I have had this feeling that my young sons see more than adults do. I have had that feeling with great regularity with Ainan, as he grew up...and now I get the same feeling with both Fintan and Tiarnan. I rather feel that the world they see is of much finer grain than the world adults see. I hope, however, it is not that they are children and the others to whom I compare them, are adults, that makes the real difference. I hope that it is an innate difference in observation skill and that they will always retain this advantage. It would be sad to think that, when they grow up, they might lose this present ability to see the world in fine detail and remember its every nuance.

Fintan, Tiarnan and Ainan's world is richer than that of others - not because their world is different, but because they see it in greater detail. They see what others don't and remember what others can't.

Keep on observing, Fintan, Tiarnan and Ainan...and don't let your vision fade to that of a typical adult, when you grow up!

(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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

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.)

Tiarnan studies his brain.

"Mummy", Tiarnan, three, began, with something of import to say, "when I do this," he rocked his head back and forward a little too rapidly, "My brain feels like water inside."

"Well stop doing it then!", she urged, sensibly.

I find this brief tale interesting for one primary reason: it shows that Tiarnan is observing himself closely. This reminds me of another observer in the family: Ainan, who ever since he was very young (like the first days), seemed to be always watching, studying and observing the world and himself in it.

In seeing the ways of the brothers, I can't help but feel that they are united in more ways than just the fact that they are brothers: they echo each other in their essence. Some of what each is, is found in the others. I wonder if they will draw sustenance from these commonalities, in later years, when they have grown up? I hope so, for they will find in each other, people who can understand them, very well. What they could offer each other, therefore, is a deep rapport, that, so often, is, I find, missing from siblings, when it should so easily be there.

Now, stop sloshing your brains around Tiarnan.

(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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

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

Fintan resident fashion expert.

Fintan is a sharp-eyed boy, as I have pointed out before. He is also concerned with all things visual - including fashion. The weekend was a case in point.

We found ourselves in a shoe shop, with all three kids in tow. Ainan needed new shoes and kids being kids, we couldn't buy a pair for him, without buying a pair for each of them, too. So, it duly turned into a mammoth shoe hunt with various trendy offerings being tried on.

What struck me, though, about our experience in the shoe shop was how Fintan understood the shoes in the shops. For him, each one was unique. It went like this: "Daddy, those shoes are the ones my friend in K2 wears...and those are the ones my friend in..." He duly pointed out to me the various people in his life that he had seen wearing the shoes of each particular design that caught his eye. It was quite a surprise for me - because I never notice what shoes people are wearing. Fintan, however, had catalogued, in his mind, the things his friends wore - and was able to recognize them, in the shop, as being of a particular person.

To me, this shows two characteristics: a good visual memory - and an attention to detail in his environment.

When I cross-reference this experience to the one of Fintan shouting: "I'm an artist!" while chasing his unwilling art subject brother around the house, I wonder, indeed, if Fintan is, in fact, an artist in the making, as he states, spontaneously. He certainly has the tendency to evaluate the world in a visual way, in great detail.

I have only ever met one other person who could recall what people wore in such detail, before. She was a profoundly gifted girl who ended up working as an art dealer. Thus, if not an artist, I think he will be someone who works around the visual arts. (Though being an artist is actually fairly likely, for him, given the summation of his expressed attitudes and attributes.)

We will just have to wait and see.

(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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Not every "change" is a success.

Fintan has a habit of noticing things that other five year olds might overlook. Worse still, where company is concerned, he also has a habit of speaking out about them.

Yesterday, we were watching TV as a family. An advert came on that featured quite a few people engaged in complex conversation. Fintan cocked an ear to this. At the end, a very glamorous model-like woman addressed the male protagonist of the commercial. Suddenly, Fintan turned sharply from the TV and spoke to his mother: "Mummy, that woman talks like a boy!"

Fintan - all of five years old - had spotted a trans-sexual on television. Syahidah and I laughed when we realized he had seen through all of "her"cosmetic surgery. We didn't, however, explain to him just why that "woman" spoke like a boy...it just seemed too delicate a matter to discuss with a five year old.

However, it shows that even a five year old is able to see through such a disguise. It makes one wonder how often such "changes" are actually successful, if a child can notice them - at least this child, anyway.

For those who are reading from afar, I should point out that trans-sexuals are much more common in Asia than they were in London, when I left at the end of the nineties. I don't know the situation there now, however. It is a cultural thing, in this part of the world. Many more young men seem to be choosing to alter their appearance in this way - so they are encountered, in every day life, much more frequently than would be the case in London or, from my observations, America.

This, of course, leads to situations where one may have to explain to one's children why a particular woman is so tall...or has such a low voice. To date, however, I have avoided explaining the issue to my own children: I have just let their observations pass. One day, however, no doubt I will have to explain what is going on. That day, however, is not today.

(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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)