An unlikely acrobat.

Fintan is a burly boy. He has about him a sense of physical power that relatively few children have.

Though it is early to say, he promises to grow into quite a strapping and well proportioned young man.

Yet, there is also something uncanny about him in that he can do what does not seem likely given his heft.

About three or four weeks ago, Tiarnan, five, was showing off his dance moves. He had been watching a break dance drama and took it upon himself to give his impression of break dancing. He had done so several times that day, for his mother: even taking to trying special moves that involved going to the ground, hands first, rather than feet first. He observed of his work: “I can do it all, but not the spinning on the head.” He was not foolish enough to try that, from mere observation of a video, alone.

Tiarnan’s dancing was exuberant, energetic and very much informed by his excitement at doing so. He wanted us all to see him do it. He showed his mother first, then later on, me, then, finally he did so for Fintan, 7.

“Look Fintan!”, he began, then did his best “break dancing”.

Fintan watched carefully, for a while, then something interesting began to happen: little twitches occurred across his body as if he were considering various movements.

“Come on, Fintan!”, said his mother, Syahidah, who had been watching. “You try it!”

Fintan was silent. He twitched some more. He appeared to be mustering the courage not to do something, but to overcome a little shyness.

Suddenly, Fintan, my stockiest son, flung himself through the air and did a cartwheel on his hands, then leapt up off the floor, with a spring of his arms, spun around an invisible axis in the air and landed on the sofa, his whole body stretched out, with his right arm under his head, in a triangle of support. The whole thing was of one perfect fluid move, of such unlikely physical prowess, that it looked like something straight out of a Kung Fu movie.

Fintan was most cool about it and looked up at Tiarnan, somewhat amusedly.

Tiarnan looked utterly shocked.

After a moment or two, Tiarnan recovered himself enough to say: “It is not that I can’t do that...”.His head shook a little as if the mere thought of something not being possible for Tiarnan was itself impossible. “Oh no. It is just that I want to do this!”

Then he launched off into more of his break dancing moves, his arms and legs assailing the air from an infinitude of angles with energy and speed. It was clear he wanted to show himself at least as adept as his elder brother.

Fintan lay in repose throughout perhaps aware that his masterful move could not be outshone, no matter what Tiarnan tried to do. He had “won” this seeming competition, with the simplest, sleekest, briefest display of physical ability.

This incident does make me wonder at what else Fintan could do, were he exposed to the right opportunities. He has not, for instance, studied gymnastics – yet, his move was straight out of a gymnast’s gift. It seems I shall have to start looking for opportunities for Fintan to explore his evident athletic gifts. Should any readers live in Kuala Lumpur, like us, please make suggestions of classes and experiences below. Thanks.

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An unexpected maturity; a surprising immaturity.

Today, I saw something remarkable - and a little sad.

I was with Tiarnan in the Science Centre, after having seen the Leonardo the Genius exhibition. Tiarnan, three, was in the mathematics display area of the Science Centre and he was investigating the Double Gravity Well exhibit. He found it most absorbing.

Tiarnan first wanted to stand on the exhibit, to be able to see into it. It consists of an ellipitical table like surface, which is curved, dipping towards two holes along the central axis. The idea is that you should roll a ball along the surface and watch how it is affected by the twin wells, representing two gravitational masses near each other. I gave Tiarnan a ball, while he stood on the table but, instead of rolling it while standing on the top, he jumped down to the floor to do it "properly".

He held the ball in his left hand and rolled it. He was delighted as it careened around the table top, drawn in a curve around the wells and between them. Eventually, it rolled into one of the holes. Immediately, he rushed off to get more balls and rolled them, one by one, in different paths, to see what would happen. He managed to do it three times, before he was interrupted.

Laughing, shouting and pushing each other, there came a group of teenage boys into the room. They saw, at once, what Tiarnan was doing and rushed over to the balls and, immediately, started to throw them at each other. Tiarnan, who had three more balls in his hands, stopped in his tracks, and watched these older, bigger boys behaving so strangely.

The teenagers were among the least well behaved people I can ever recall seeing in a museum. They threw the balls at each other, hard and fast in rapid succession. Then they rushed over to the table and huddled around it. One of them jumped up and tried to punch a ball into the hole, forcing it down a hole it was never meant to pass through. He punched it several times, until it was thoroughly jammed. Tiarnan was shocked at what they were doing.

The teenagers ran around chaotically - from Tiarnan's perspective they must have seemed like giant lumbering lunatics. There was no order to their behaviour, it was just an exuberant, messy, riotous chaos. Tiarnan stood stock still, his three balls unused in his hands. He seemed to be waiting for them to go away. I looked down at him and he looked up at me in a shared understanding. He looked back at the boys, wondering, perhaps, just why they were behaving as they were. Tiarnan, you must remember, is just three years old and had never, in his short life, seen boys behaving like this before.

After the boy had given up trying to force the ball through the hole, with his fist, they started a battle on the table top. This involved moving the balls around the table as fast as possible, and trying to hit them together. This they did for a couple of minutes, before their short attention spans were exhausted. Then they decided to throw all the balls in the room on the table, upending the containers filled with them to do so. One container was upended over another boy.

I called Tiarnan away, lest they run into him.

He understood the need to move, at once, and came with me.

Behind us, the boys rioted on, scattering balls all over the hall, shouting as much as they threw.

For me, the contrast between my three year old's attentive, concentrated attempt to understand the double gravity well and its properties, and the teenage boys' mindlessness, could not have been sharper. Tiarnan seemed infinitely more mature, more composed, more thoughtful and more intelligent, than the mindless oafs who had taken over the museum hall. It was more than a little disturbing to realize that these boys - who looked to be about 18 years old - were SIX times older than my son - and yet, had none of his self-control, none of his consideration for others and none of his maturity.

After the gravity well, the gang of boys went from exhibit to exhibit, interacting with each in a very aggressive way - as if trying to test them to destruction. The hall was filled with the sounds of banging and bashing, alongside their shouts. We retreated as far from them as we could.

I didn't say anything to Tiarnan about it, then, but I think I should. I think those boys provided a terrible example to my son of what constitutes a reasonable way to behave in a public space and with public property. I wouldn't expect a three year old to try to be so destructive as those boys were. Isn't it shocking to think that 18 year olds are capable of behaving in a way which would be considered out of place even for a THREE year old?

The conventional overseas view of Singaporean school going students is that they are all a studious, serious lot. I can tell you now, however, that that is certainly not true of all of them. I imagine that far from being studious, the bunch of boys I saw today would be more likely to tear the pages out of a book, than read them.

I am left with a thought: those boys were pre-NS. I wonder, just wonder, how they will cope with the discipline of NS, when their natural inclination is to riot? I think they are in for a surprise..either that, or the NS people are...

What was sad, for me, was seeing Tiarnan watching these rioting boys huddled around the gravity well table, in utter astonishment at what they were doing, then looking down at the balls in his hands, wondering, I thought, whether he was ever going to get the chance to continue his investigation. He didn't.

(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.

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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.)

Equanimity in the face of adversity.

How do young children take what are, to them, hard knocks? When you are small, little disasters can seem like a big deal.

A couple of days ago, Fintan, four, asked me to buy him some M and Ms at the local shop. I duly did so.

As he walked with me, away from the shop, he decided to open the sweet packet, rather than wait until he got home. He tugged hard at it, pinching it between the fingers of both hands. Suddenly, it gave way catastrophically, scattering the chocolate sweets within, all over the ground.

It was what he didn't do that impressed me. He didn't shout out. He didn't cry. He didn't complain. He looked calmly at the multi-coloured array of sweets scattered all around him and said, quietly: "Never mind. I will buy some another day."

He then reached into the torn packet and ate the three remaining sweets, all without any fuss. When he had done so, he started to play a little game with the fallen chocolates - stamping on them, one by one, as he left for home.

I thought his calm response to sudden disappointment most telling of his character. Fintan is not one easily perturbed - he just carries on, doing what he intended to do, no matter what the difficulties that arise. If disappointed, he seems neither to show it nor to feel it. He just tells himself that all will be well, another time.

I felt so proud, in that moment, to see his mature response to an unexpected disappointment. I feel it promises much for his ability to cope with whatever life throws at him, in later years.

The next time I get him chocolates, however, I will open them for him. At least, then, he will get to enjoy them.

(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.)

Singapore's Hospitals: a child's view.

Yesterday, Fintan went to hospital. Not to stay, you understand, just to be treated.

As is the way with children, Fintan invented a way to harm himself, yesterday, while playing in the swimming pool. It wasn't the obvious ways in which water is dangerous, but one characterized by unlikelihood. Somehow, Fintan managed to find something sharp in the swimming pool, and bump into it, with his head. It seems to have been a step on the way out, as he swam underwater. He is not entirely clear on the issue - and I can understand why, for the pool was rather crowded at the time. There was just too much going on.

He never noticed it, at the time. It was only as he rose from the pool to greet me that I caught sight of the unwelcome colour on the side of his cheek. There was blood pouring from his eye. I moved closer, in a calm hurry, to examine it more closely.

"Come Fintan, we have to go, now." I said, quietly, so as not to alarm him, overly, "You have cut yourself". There was what appeared to be quite a deep incision on the eyelid just next to his eye. It was about a centimetre long and gaped at me most discomfitingly.

He said nothing. He did not protest as he usually did, when asked to leave the pool (a process that can take some twenty minutes, some days). He must have realized something was wrong.

I was struck by his calmness. He seemed so mature in that moment. He didn't panic, didn't get upset, didn't make a fuss, he just came with me, blood streaming from his eye, as he walked.

We went home, where I had a closer look. It was definitely a matter for the hospital. My wife was on her way home, so I waited until she arrived and we went together.

At the hospital, the check in staff quietly looked at Fintan's eye and wrote "E" on the admissions paper, for "emergency". We were soon seen by a nurse, within a few minutes of arrival.

She was Indian. Fintan listened to her and answered her questions softly, with a very serious face.

She told me he wasn't to eat or drink until the doctor had seen him.

Before being allowed to see the doctor, we had to pay at reception for the treatment.

The receptionist was Indian, too.

A few minutes later, the doctor was viewing Fintan's injury.

"You are a very lucky boy." He observed. "A centimetre lower and you would have cut your eyeball."

"Close your eyes." He asked Fintan and Fintan did so, sitting quietly, without flinching, while the Doctor administered to his wound.

"You've got two cuts here.", he remarked.

He then began to clean the injury but what had, at first, seemed to be two cuts, resolved itself into one, the second being merely dried blood.

"Glue." He said to his assistant, who moved forward to get to work. He shook his head. "I'll do this one...", he stated.

"Super glue?" I asked.

"The same compound, yes...just longer molecules." he explained, "It takes longer to dry than the short ones used commercially."

He turned to Fintan and said: "This will hurt a little. Don't move. I have to get it to close up, well."

Fintan didn't flinch. He lay perfectly still.

He held the gash taut between two fingers and applied the glue gently, with what looked like a tiny pad or brush.

As he did so, he gave us aftercare instructions.

Throughout I was impressed with Fintan's stillness. He seemed so mature in his self-control. There was not a budge of any kind from him. His entire body was perfectly still. Yet, he is only four years old.

I think he is rather a brave little boy, in his way.

All was done. It looked a good clean job. Even with a narrow scar, it shouldn't be too visible, being as it is, tucked just above the eye. He was lucky.

As Fintan was leaving he turned to us and said: "I didn't get a sweet this time."

That was a reference to a time a year or two before, when he had been given a sweet by a nurse.

We both smiled...and bought him some chocolate.

As he left the hospital, he pointed up into the air, at a flag fluttering, from the side of the hospital.

"Why is there a Singapore flag?" he said, puzzled.

I looked and saw that it was indeed a Singaporean flag.

"Why isn't it an India flag?"

I laughed then, because I understood what he meant. Many of the staff in the hospital had been Indian. So, he thought that a better description would have been an Indian flag.

"Because it is Singapore, Fintan." I explained to him, but much preferring his view of the hospital. Indeed, there is often more truth to a child's view than to an adult's constrained perceptions. There DID seem to be more Indians working there, than others.

I patted his head, just glad that his eye was OK.

I rather hope that there are not too many more visits to hospital, in my childrens' childhoods.

It did teach me something about Fintan, though. He is very calm and collected in a crisis. He also exhibits great self-control - and he doesn't panic. Such qualities can be very valuable, in many areas of life. I wonder if he will ever get to use them?

(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.)

Emotional intelligence in a baby: self-control

Can babies have high emotional intelligence?

Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley is just nine months old yet, today, he showed remarkable self-control.

He was crying in the taxi on the way to visit a friend. My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley was trying to comfort him when she noted that we were nearing our destination.

"Stop!", she demanded, of the driver.

"OK." Tiarnan answered, unexpectedly, amidst his tears, and stopped crying at once. He had thought Syahidah was asking him to stop crying.

We were stunned. Never had I heard of a baby being able to exhibit such self-control before, as to stop his crying on command, like that. His eyes were still red, his lips still downcast, but fresh tears had stopped flowing, and his face soon unwrinkled and adopted its normal state of repose. It was as if the weather had suddenly cleared, in the midst of the monsoon: utterly surprising.

Self-control is an aspect of emotional intelligence which some adults have not truly mastered - perhaps many of them, in fact. To see it in a baby of nine months was startling - even to us, who have come to expect the surprising in our children.

This observation is an interesting one to set alongside the display of courage of his elder brother Fintan. There is something in common there, I feel. There is a common emotional intelligence at work: this is just a different aspect of the same phenomenon.

For more on Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley's early athleticism, go to:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/babies-who-climb-early-athleticism.html

and:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/athleticism-in-baby-opens-door-to.html

For a discussion of Tiarnan's very early speech development:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/talkative-baby-genius-verbal.html

For Tiarnan's musicality:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/09/baby-who-sings-himself-to-sleep.html

For Tiarnan crawling downstairs at eight months (after upstairs at five months):

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

If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, Tiarnan's scientific child prodigy brother, go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html