A genius in their midst

Every child is surprising, but no child is more surprising than a prodigy. As my wife, Syahidah, once observed, of her first-born, Ainan, in his first year: “I gave birth to an old man.” This was the impression he left on us, as he spoke with a wisdom he should not have and observed with insights no mere child could possibly possess. To be able to watch Ainan grow up has been a continuous lesson in astonishment.

Everyone has certain expectations of what raising a child is like. We acquire these expectations from how other people speak of their children, and of our memories of how children were when we were children ourselves. Yet, the parents of a gifted child, particularly a prodigiously gifted child, soon learn that none of the common expectations of children hold true. There is nothing expected about a prodigious child.

Ainan began speaking very early on ... so early, in fact, that I hesitate to write of it here, lest it not be believed.

By the age of four months, Ainan was crawling about the house, by six months he was walking, and by eight months, he was running freely everywhere he could, and could climb into and out of his cot. We just accepted this as just the way Ainan was.

I think we were aware that Ainan was quick in his development, but I don’t think we were aware of just how quick he was, compared to other children. We lived in our own little Ainan-centred bubble, and didn’t quite understand what the world would have thought of him.

Also at eight months, he showed evidence of early reading. He was running past a parked car, when he suddenly stopped and pointed at the hubcap – which had letters on it – and began reading them out. I admit, I was startled, since we had not tried to teach him to read, directly.

Ainan’s speech and reasoning were developing well. When he was 12 months old, his mother put a red cape on his shoulders and said: “Now, Ainan, you are Superman!” He sighed then and looked up at her, as if about to explain something very simply to one who did not understand. “No, Mummy,” he began, intently, “I am not Superman, because I cannot fly.”

He then jumped up into the air and came down again. “See?” he said, his arms out, palms up.

This was typical of him, by this time: He was speaking in full sentences, with logical reasoning and a little experiment to back him up. Of course, at this age, most children are struggling to say their first word.

I have written about his first year, because I want people to understand that prodigious gift is evident from very early on. The first months of the lives of such children are not anywhere near normal. So, to have a good idea of what is to come, for such children, one needs only look at the first year, to have many a clue.

Many people often wonder if we treat Ainan, now 12, differently from our other sons, Fintan, eight, and Tiarnan, six. This question shows a misunderstanding of parenting. If we treated each child exactly the same and did exactly the same with them, we would be poor parents. Each child has its own needs. A good parent tries to meet the individual needs of each child – and that is what we do.

For instance, as a toddler, Ainan didn’t like “story books.” In fact, he did his best to avoid them. When we took him to the library, he would pick out science books, with complicated illustrations and annotations. He would read these, with attention, then comment on them later. Whilst at first we tried to interest him in works of fiction, too, it was soon clear that he had no interest in them at all – so we allowed him to choose his own books. I think he was trying to build a world view and didn’t want his vision clouded by “lies.”

At three, he took to surfing the Internet, on his own, in search of mathematics sites. His particular interest was hyperdimensional shapes. He would study these then draw their shadows in two dimensions. By this time, we were very used to him and did not think it was unusual that he had these interests, or that he could type and spell his way around the Internet.

At six, his aunt found him reading a Chemistry textbook. She said: “Ainan, you seem to understand that.”

“I do,” he said softly and continued reading.

“Oh yeah?” she countered and went off to get an O-Level Chemistry question paper for him to do.

He answered the questions correctly. It turned out he had been studying Chemistry on the Internet.

When I heard this, I bought him an O-Level textbook on July 18, 2006. We worked on it together and precisely six months later, on Jan 18, 2007, he passed O-Level Chemistry. Although this exam is normally for 16-and-a-half-year-olds, he was just seven years and one month old. He had become the youngest person in the world ever to pass an O-Level – and made it into the Singapore Book of Records. We were living in the island republic, where my wife Syahidah Osman Cawley, an artist, hails from, though her mother, Sabariah Abdul Wahab, is from Parit Yaani, Johor.

Since then, Ainan’s intellectual growth has continued apace. At eight years, he studied mainly third-year courses in Chemistry at Singapore Polytechnic. This made him the youngest student to study third-year tertiary courses.

Also at eight years, he became the youngest person in the world to make a scientific discovery when he discovered a new sensory phenomenon, Velociperception. This is a kind of synaesthesia – a cross-wiring of the senses – in which moving objects are colour-coded, in vision, to have different colours at different angular velocities. Ainan is the first known case of it. He co-authored a paper on it (philica.com/display_article.php?article_id=178), and another paper on child prodigiousness (philica.com/display_article.php?article_id=176). I must say that if there is a secret to our children’s development, it is synaesthesia, because it enhances their memories and helps them learn.

The international media woke up to Ainan’s existence, when he was eight. He was featured in several international documentaries and TV news programmes, including Superhuman Genius, for Britain’s ITV 1, and The World’s Cleverest Child and Me, for the British broadcaster Channel 4. Closer to home, Ainan has appeared in Asia’s Wonder Kids for the Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia, and Eyes on You on Malaysia’s 8TV, among others.

Over the next few years, Ainan was also featured in various newspapers worldwide, including a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal, and prominent stories in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Sun of Britain, the German Bild and Asian newspapers.

At nine years and one month, he passed Physics O-Level and Chemistry AS-Level. At 10, he began an American Degree Programme in Malaysia. We moved to Malaysia because we had run out of educational options for Ainan in Singapore. It was simply too difficult to work with the system there.

Now, at 12, he is continuing his studies on the American Degree Programme at Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus in Subang Jaya, Selangor. His studies, to date, across all institutions, include Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Economics, Computer Programming, Computer Animation, English and History. He is becoming a very well-rounded and versatile intellect.

Ainan has chosen when and what to learn, basically; I only advise him on what would be helpful to him in the long-run. He is not pressured or pushed. He decides his own pace. It would be wrong to get the impression that Ainan studies a lot. In fact, most of the time he is playing with his brothers, working on his music, enjoying computer games or reading humorous books.

People think gifted children are maladjusted. That is not the case with Ainan. He gets on well with his fellow students at university and is accepted by them. Though he is reserved among strangers, he is very talkative with people he knows. He is a friendly, though shy, boy. Interestingly, despite his profound intelligence, Ainan considers himself “normal.” Perhaps this attitude helps him, socially.

Raising a child genius requires the parents to be open to surprises and to be able to adapt to any new challenge or interest that develops, over time. For me, the particular joy of parenting Ainan is that, from a very early age, he could understand my every thought.

He is the perfect intellectual companion. There is also the issue of how siblings react to the prodigious child. Fortunately, our other two children are bright, too, and they get along very well together. They are the “Three Musketeers!”

Recently, something happened that totally took us by surprise. For six years we had a piano in our house and Ainan never touched it. Then, one day, a few months ago, I heard music coming from the piano room ... well-played music. Curiously, I stood in the doorway and saw Ainan playing the piano. He was doing so by ear – playing a tune he had once heard, long ago – Beethoven, I believe. Yet, he had had no piano lessons. Since then, he has played many other complex pieces of music, by ear – and taken to composing his own, rather involved, pieces.

This incident, in a way, summarises our parenting style. We left the piano there, to provide an opportunity for learning. However, we left it up to Ainan to decide to do it himself one day. We opened the door – but he had to pass through it.

Listening now, to him composing, I am rather glad we bought that piano. He found music through the piano, just as he found Maths and Chemistry through the Internet. All we did, as parents, was offer the chance to learn. It was always up to Ainan to take it – and he did.

As for the future: Ainan hopes to be a “thinker,” when he grows up. We would like him to be creatively fulfilled and happy, contributing to all his areas of interest. This would include science, music, writing and digital art. He is a multi-faceted boy.

Irishman Valentine Cawley, 44, is a locally-based psychology researcher focusing on giftedness. He is also chairman of the Research Committee of the National Association for Gifted Children, Malaysia (NAGCM). He is a graduate in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, Britain. He has had a lifelong interest in giftedness, but the birth of Ainan gave his interest renewed purpose. He has been a writer of books, actor, magazine founder and editor, physicist, teacher and performance artiste. He is happiest, though, to be a father to his three sons. He keeps a blog on giftedness at scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com.