Wonderkids

One of my ongoing side projects involves modern and historic child prodigies, and how we're wired differently from the rest of the species. As I was part of one of the first experimental CP programs in the state of Florida, and my daughter now has to cope with virtually the same problems, I'm hoping the study will provide some answers.

Chess and math prodigies always attract most of the media's attention, but they're not the only type of prodigy out there. Abstract painter Marla Olmstead has made over $100K from her paintings, shown at Anthony Brunelli's gallery in Binghampton, NY. Marla is four years old.

Advanced thought processing also plays an important part in the life of a child prodigy, particularly those of us with unusual memory capacities. One example of this is Arran Fernandez, who passed the GCSE and became the youngest person in the world to do so, at the grand old age of five.

Although child actors are seldom considered prodigies, it's good to remember that Macaulay Culkin's talents earned him more money in the first thirteen years of his life than two dozen actors see in a lifetime.