A Special Child

Every child is special and unique in his own little way….

I have been fascinated by the uniqueness of one such special child. His actions and expressions simply leave me dumbstruck.

He was just one year old when his little mind started grasping the worldly logic which he later expressed in his own manner. This little toddler with a highly inquisitive mind is always eager to explore and learn something new.

He was just one year old when his distinctive behaviour became evident.

He loved to play with water just like most other kids. While playing in the bathroom he used his toys to device new games and then enjoyed them . One such act that he enjoyed was placing the spoon under the running tap water. This made the water splash all around the spoon and guess what he related this to? He called it a sun…on closely observing the spoon and the spluttering water I realized that it actually resembled a shining sun, beaming its rays.

Creating sun by placing spoon under running tap water

He escorted his parents to stores to buy weekly grocery, fruits and vegetables. While parents were busy purchasing fruits and vegetables this curious mind looked for some fun here too. He managed to pick up oranges and placed them one top of the other and said, “look this is eight”. This was really creative for a barely one-year old to display something like this.

Making eight with oranges

It was the numbers that captivated him the most. He bought different types of number games. He picked up toys that displayed numbers and also watched number rhymes. One day he picked up a broom in one hand and a ball in another and called it ‘10’.

His area of interest started broadening and diversifying as he grew. The next thing that he mastered was shapes. He simply loved observing different shapes. He observed all the differently shaped objects around him and aptly related to the shapes he knew..be it sign boards on roads, toys, furniture or anything else, he found shapes in everything. 

Once he found his father laid down with one leg folded and the ankle of other placed on it. He ran up to him and said, "this is triangle". Slowly he learnt about all shapes including the little complicated ones like trapezium, octagon, nonagon and decagon.

He learnt all the alphabets when he was hardly one and a half. He used hand signs to depict different letters.

Now having mastered all the alphabets he started writing them on word text. Laptop was his another area of interest. He learnt some of the basic functionalities including different symbols, usage of word document, painting and also loved watching rhymes on You tube. Sometimes when bored of all this he tried his hands on camera, clicking his own pictures.

Just like any other kid of two years he too enjoyed watching rhymes on laptop. But after having watched all the rhymes several times he was bored and hence tried to do something different and more entertaining.  He began to experiment the rhymes practically. The “Itsy Bitsy" spider being his first love he carried it out live at home.

While any small object became the spider, the vacuum cleaner rod was the spout. Now since the rhyme couldn't be complete without rain, so he created rain by spilling water from his sipper. He was so fascinated with this rhyme that whenever he went out he kept checking out all the spouts that he came across to find his “Itsy Bitsy”.

Another rhyme that he enjoyed carrying out was “ten green bottles”. Well for this he used his mother’s dressing table as the play ground and all the cosmetic bottles became his green bottles. One by one he threw all the bottles on the floor while nicely singing the words of the rhyme and “One green bottle accidentally fall”. The play continued till all the bottles were on the floor.

Planet song that he once watched on You tube captivated his thoughts. Slowly he learnt about all the planets. Although he could not clearly pronounce the words he knew the right order and some basic attributes of the planets. Mercury is closest to the sun, Venus is hot, Earth is where we live, Jupiter is big, Saturn has rings and so on.. he developed his learning into fun games. Once he was down with fever and when he visited doctor, he explained sickness by saying that he had become hot like Venus, hearing which the doctor could not stop laughing at such an unique expression by a little toddler.

Creating Solar system with rings and kitchen tool

All round objects present in the house were used for making Solar System, making sure to put all in right order including sun. Even the kitchen tools were not spared. Once while creating his own Solar System he picked up the Chauki from the kitchen( used to make chapaati) and turned it into Jupiter as according to him it is big and strong.

His keen and observant mind manages to store all that comes in his contact. Once he got fascinated with Indian map so now whenever he found water droplet on table or floor he tried to give some shape resembling Indian map and then called it India. Interestingly whenever he drank water he left some in glass which he later used to make Indian map.

He had not completed his two years when he started holding pencil and began scribbling. Soon with continuous practice he began to make straight lines and proper curves. He began to write numbers and letters without any assistance. 

Little master trying his best to write something

The little fingers managed to write most of the letters correctly but the ones that got him stuck (like M and 6) did not bother him. He always had a way out. He wrote W and stood on the other side and said it was M. Similarly for 6 he wrote 9 and stood on the other and it became 6.

Being a boy how could he be untouched by cars. Well, unlike several other kids he doesn't like to play with toy cars but he simply loved the different types of car logos. Within a short period of time he learnt as many as twenty car logos and also the spellings of some. It became a fun game that he played with his mom. Whenever out, they had to catch the glimpse of the car logos of fast moving cars.

The newest game added to his fun zone is shooting. He collected and tried hands at all types of shooting toys like guns, sling shots, dart and also bow and arrow. He simply loves playing with them. 

He even used some of these (plastic made) deadly weapons against his worst enemies that he encountered -mosquitoes,flies and cockroaches. He targeted these insects so accurately that none got spared from his aim.

Now he will soon turn 4. He has learnt Arabic numbers and alphabets and also Hindi numbers uptil 10. He knows days of the week and months and lot more. At times he also likes to read short stories without much hassle. It is wonderful to watch his growing activities and discoveries.

Well, he has a long way to go, discover a lot more and learn many new things. Let’s hope he continues to learn and grow in the most productive way.