Adam’s a quick learner

What sets Adam apart is that he can read three- to four-letter words, recognise close to 50 car models and shout names of complicated shapes that a lot of adults don’t know about.

Apart from basic geometrical shapes like squares, triangles and circles, Adam can recognise a parallelogram, hexagonal prism, quatrefoil, and semi-circles. His favourite shape is a quatrefoil. Apart from recognising geometrical shapes, Adam knows the days of the week, months of the year, names of planets, and he can recognise the sound of any instrument playing in the background of a song and he can memorise a story word by word after it has been read to him.

A gifted child is generally considered to be one who has a higher than average intellectual, creative or artistic ability, beyond their physical development.

There is currently no way to test if Adam is a ‘child prodigy’ or a gifted child simply because he is too young, said his mother Soha Halfawi. Soha and husband Mohie El Rafey are proud parents of Adam and Laila. Adam also possesses the exceptional ability to recognise car models as they zoom past his father’s car. He shouts out names of car models like Subaru, Peugeot, BMW, and other car makers when shown pictures of the vehicles.

Laila and Adam play with the pictures and logos of cars.— KT photo by Rahul Gajjar

Adam started showing signs of early development at a very young age. He started walking when he was 10- to 12-month-old and is extremely attached to his sister Laila. He picks up a lot from whatever she learns at her school. Though Adam’s parents are very proud of his abilities, they are concerned about the challenges they will have to face to encourage his development in the right direction. “It’s not about us wanting him to get famous. For me, if nobody knows what he can do, it’s fine. But after attending the Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness which recently took place in Dubai, we realised that we are going to need a lot of help and resources in terms of what to teach him next. There is very little that we know about resources for gifted children here in the UAE. There are several centres in the United States, Malaysia, and China. It would be great if we have someone here who can give us pointers on what we can do as parents to help him,” said Soha.

The El Rafeys pointed out that what they need is someone to help direct them in the right direction with regard to bringing him up. “I attended the conference only to understand more about him out of curiosity. The experts we met at the conference said that he needs to be constantly challenged and he should not get bored. Other than that, we just want him to be happy,” said Soha.

The Giftedness Conference 2012 was a huge help for parents in Dubai with gifted kids. The conference was organised at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre last week. It highlighted the efforts to bring the region’s experts together, develop programmes for gifted children, and present the latest research. With the recent introduction of new programmes and awards by the UAE Ministry of Education, teachers are encouraged to obtain the necessary certification to teach gifted students as well.

“We are looking to get all the help we need. From my experience being a mother, I know that this isn’t normal. He is starting Foundation Year in September and will be the youngest ever to start school at such a young age,” said Soha. The parents say that they are going to wait till he is four to test him with professionals.

“It’s not so much about how bright he is, it’s about how we can help to accelerate his learning. He obviously has a very big appetite to learn at a very quick pace and our concern is to figure out as to how we can match his abilities,” said Mohie.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com