The font nerd.

Ainan has always looked at the world in his own way. One of these ways, is a little uncanny.

When Ainan is out and about, he has the habit of pointing at the written script around him – for instance, the sign on a health centre: “That is Trajan”, he says, naming the font used. Or in a restaurant, he will pick up a menu and observe: “That is Palatino Linotype”. 

Everywhere he looks, he sees not just words, but fonts. In a day, he will name many different fonts, as he notes them in the world around him.

He did this, recently, in the company of a noted artist, who was a guest lecturer at an event we attended. He was very surprised when Ainan noted that the font used on a book he had published, was Gill Sans.

“How do you know that?”, asked the dumbfounded artist.

“Oh, he is a prodigy.” My wife answered, intervening, with a shrug, as if that was explanation enough. Ainan himself was silent on the matter – as usual, never commenting on himself, in company.

What I find most interesting about this is what it says about Ainan’s visual perception and visual memory. He is able to identify a huge number of fonts – indeed, any font he has ever seen, and learnt the name of – at a single glance. This suggests that he retains an accurate image of each letter used in the fonts and is able to discriminate the often subtle differences between fonts, with a very rapid glance. He has had no training in typography, or lessons of any kind – but has simply picked up these discriminations on his own.

This phenomenon is just one of many with Ainan, that show him to be a close observer of the world around him. Of course, this ability to observe, remember and distinguish is much more useful in other contexts, than simply labelling the written world in fonts. There are clearly many practical advantages to such observational skill, which lend themselves well to many areas of work, and creation. I have a few ideas of how Ainan might apply this observational skill...but I will leave those for another day.

Written by Valentine Cawley

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Knowledge of national flags.

About six weeks ago, Tiarnan, then twenty-six months, saw a picture of 150 national flags, in an array. He looked at it, with interest. Seeing this, his mother, Syahidah, asked him: "Which is the Singapore flag, Tiarnan?"

His little hand reached out, with his index finger pointed straight ahead - and he placed it on the Singapore flag.

It was a spooky moment - spooky because we have never told him which is the Singaporean flag, nor have we shown him one - and neither do we own one. Somehow Tiarnan had observed from his environment, the Singapore flag and knew what it looked like. No doubt he had seen it somewhere and deduced that it must be the one we sought. This also makes clear, of course, that he knows he is in Singapore (which again we have never explicitly told him).

Babies, it seems, have ways of learning that may not always be apparent. If Tiarnan is an example, they can pick up information, on their own, from their own experience, without us realizing how or where they got it from.

Think on this. There are many teenagers - and adults - the world over, who wouldn't be able to pick out a Singaporean flag, from an array of 150 others. Indeed, some teenagers and adults wouldn't be able to pick out their own national flag - especially when faced with a sea of flags, many of which look quite similar.

I wonder what else Tiarnan has worked out for himself?

(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.)

Tiarnan and the meaning of art

A few days ago, Tiarnan was hurtling about the house, as he likes to do, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He pointed at a little green badge and said: "Kuda". This is Malay for horse.

There, on the badge was a rather confused line drawing. It was of a male rider, drawn over a horse, about a centimetre tall. It wasn't a very good work of art for the lines of the man became confused with the lines of the horse. An adult would know what was meant to be represented (if only from the name of a riding school on the badge), but it was a surprise that a seventeen month old baby could work it out - for it was not at all clear.

From this, it is clear that Tiarnan is aware of the littlest things in his environment, which he is able to pick up at speed, even when moving around quite quickly. It is also clear that he understands the relationship between art and object; between the representation and the thing represented. He has long shown this understanding, but this is just one more example of him drawing that connection, with little information to go on.

(If you would like to more of Tiarnan, seventeen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and seven months, or Fintan, four years and no months, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com.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 in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan interprets for daddy

The day before yesterday we were walking in a park-like area in the evening. The only available light was that thrown by nearby buildings across the darkened expanse of tree and grass.

Into this expanse, Tiarnan, fifteen months, who was walking beside us, pointed and said: "Tidur" (if I have the spelling right - I have mispelt it before as "tido").

I knew what that meant and I searched for the animal that it must have been referring to. Though I peered as intently as I might, I could see nothing in the gloom that might correspond to this "tidur".

"What is tidur?", I asked, Tiarnan, thinking another question to the one he logically answered.

He turned at once, in seeming exasperation, at me and said, sharply: "Sleeeeeeep!", in a tone that it made it most clear what he thought of my question: surely you know THAT one, daddy, he was essentially saying.

It was a revealing moment. It showed that he knew my language preference, knew which word to use with Daddy - which for others. It also showed his growing mastery of language - for him, the question had so obvious an answer that it exasperated him to hear it asked.

It was funny to see him take that stance and tone with me. Refreshing.

I never did get to see the sleeping animal he had pointed out: I think his night vision/visual perception must be better than mine.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, fifteen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and five 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, child prodigy, intelligence, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults. Thanks.)

Tiarnan's observation skills

Tiarnan, fourteen months, like Fintan, three, is a very observant child. He sees things other would miss - and finds interest in matters which others would not.

A few days ago, Tiarnan was walking around our house when he suddenly pointed at a blank white wall, and said: "Look at that!", very clearly.

On this invitation, we indeed, "looked at that." He was pointing at two pin pricks in the wall, one above the other. In its white surface they were two little points of darkness. They weren't much to notice, but notice them Tiarnan had from a distance of perhaps four or five feet, when he first pointed them out.

He then told us: "Go there!" That is, we were to look more closely. We did as we were told. To an adult eye, they were probably evidence that something had been pinned to the wall. To Tiarnan they were a mystery worth pointing out, in an otherwise perfect, blank, white wall.

What is interesting about this is that his eye is drawn to imperfection and exception: that which is different is noticed by him.

We then went outside and he did something more revealing of his observation skills. He pointed upwards and about six metres away: "Look at that!" In his line of sight, tucked away near the corner of roof and wall, was a brown moth, lying still on the wall, in the shade.

I hadn't noticed it. It was far too far above my line of sight to do so. Yet, he had - and it was so much more above his line of sight. His gaze captures all. This is very reminiscent of Fintan's visual skill.

He studied the moth with great attention and enthusiasm: he has a definite liking for living things - he gets excited when he sees them - and this is both sweet and encouraging. Sweet because it is - encouraging because it shows that he is a child of passion - and such children always develop into something worthwhile. Their passion makes them so.

Singapore is quite a standardized environment. It is much the same everywhere. But, it seems to me, that for Tiarnan (and probably Fintan) in looking so closely at the world, they will always find something interesting to see. It is the detail that will occupy them.

Tiarnan knows his animals

Yesterday, Tiarnan, thirteen months, saw a wild cat on TV.

As soon as the cat came on TV, he said, quite clearly: "Cheetah".

Now, oddly enough, it was a Cheetah, and not any other kind of cat.

Where had he learnt which cat this was? We have no idea...but it is quite telling that, at his tender age, he is able to make this distinction between cats. At a young age, it is more common for children to lump all animals together and give them one word as a broad category. It is rare to see a baby actually make fine distinctions between them: they are usually unable to see the differences between them, in a way which allows them to make a categorization. They usually can't express a label for the difference, either.

Later, he saw a Cheetah in a book and said the same thing: "Cheetah."

This ability to recognize animals and distinguish between them, is something he shares with his elder brother Fintan, three. There is a common thread, at work.