Okay, I'm going to double-check, to be sure I didn't miss anything, but I just went through the whole prodigy blog that I used to read and which I made several posts to (as an "anonymous") which Cawley responded to. After I made several posts, he wrote to me personally, asking for my email address.
I gave him my address or sent him an email and we exchanged a few posts about giftedness. I noticed he was Irish and had worked for the UK government as a physicist (at age 17), but was living in Malaysia. I asked him, out of curiosity, if he'd ever had problems in Ireland, and whether he was catholic or protestant and understood "the troubles" because I'd been having problems and it seemed no one in the U.S. understood.
I had been writing to him before the whole seizure stuff, and while my son was still showing signs of accelerated speech and development, I think up until 13 months of age or so. I know he was past his 1st birthday when his speech quit.
At any rate, Cawley quit writing me. And now, I am looking through his blog and I recognize all of the posts he made which I read, and yet I'm not finding even ONE of my comments which I posted to him about my son, or with comments about his kids or his opinions.
Is this odd? I am a little concerned, because why would he remove them? He'd responded to them and everything and then we had a correspondence.
I am going to double-check, but I just searched from the start of his blog in 2006 up until when I left with my son for Canada. I was only writing Cawley while my son still had this accelerated speech and development.
Okay, wait a second, wait a second, I found another section I haven't checked. I was just about to write mr. Cawley and ask him what was up but let me check the rest of his posts.
Okay, I just found ONE thing, but this isn't all, because I'd made other posts which were not confidential and they were on the blog and responded to. Since I've found this, which was written about me and my son, I mean, I'm the woman he refers to...perhaps I'll find my other posts...so I'll keep searching and let you know.
This is what I found so far, which Cawley wrote, and which refers to me:
"Thanks to the anonymous commenter
An anonymous commenter wrote at length about her gifted son - but asked me to keep her post confidential. I would like to thank them for their post and point out that I have no means to reply because no email or other means was left.
Feel free to write further if you wish - and good luck on raising such an interesting child.
Best wishes."
YAY!!!! Found a post! I wrote it!!! Okay, sigh of relief. Well, you never know, with what I've seen suddenly disappear. It would have been strange if they WERE NOT here, but now I've found one. I may have written in to keep confidential and then gave him my email and still posted anonymously. I don't know. At any rate, I am the "anonymous" after the first "anonymous" who names herself as "Kathy". I wrote the part about left-handedness and hair whorls and Cawley responded in an exchange:
"Giftedness and "palm-reading""
12 Comments - Show Original Post Collapse comments
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Ooh, that bit might be useful for figuring out testosterone / estrogen levels, also. Hmm...
- Kathy
5:17 AM
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...
Well, Kathy, it is a permanent record of the hormone history of the individual as it applied to their early days. It gives you a pretty good handle on their womb environment, for instance - and a good insight into their minds, too.
A helpful piece of research, I think.
Kind regards
3:33 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Hello again,
Have you also read about hair whorls and handedness? I did some research about left-handedness because my son will suck only his left thumb and has done so since the womb (photos to prove it!). So far, my son is ambidextrous, but I read some research that indicated a counter-clockwise hair whorl is rare, but predominant in left-handed kids. I don't remember exactly, but it was something like if you have a clockwise hair whorl, you're 90% likely to be right-handed and if you've a counter-clockwise whorl, there is a 50/50 chance you're left-handed, and then almost ALL left-handed kids have a counterclockwise whorl. Sorry I don't know exact numbers, but it's online.
My son has a counterclockwise whorl. I looked at my son's hands and he has longer ring fingers than index fingers,and it is especially longer on his left hand. I wonder if boys automatically have this trait as opposed to girls? I think I read somewhere that they found women who were criminals had longer index fingers, therefore more testosterone, but it sounds like a study that could be easily gender-biased--making women who have non-traditional traits fearsome.
10:27 PM
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...
Hi.
No I haven't read anything about whorls - I will have to check it out.
I can comment though on your son's long ring finger. This is a sign of a high testosterone exposure in the womb. He is likely therefore to be good at mathematical and visuo-spatial tasks, but less so at verbal ones.
Furthermore it is NOT an automatic characteristic of males that they should show this long ring finger and short index finger. I have seen males with a "female" pattern - with almost the same length of index and ring finger. This indicates a reduced testosterone exposure in the womb and a relatively increased estrogen exposure. Such males will have good verbal skills - but are likely to be less good at maths. Their brains, therefore, are more "female" in type - but that does not have any bearing on sexual orientation as far as I am aware.
Good luck on raising your ambidextrous son.
11:09 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Thanks for the comments and wishes. I found one of several links that describes the hair whorls and the link to handedness. http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/29757?&print=yes
I thought it was interesting in that lefties and righties have been found to have different characteristics/strengths. Wonder if there's a gene linking handedness to right or left brain dominance. From what I've read, most children are ambidextrous until about age 3.
I appreciate reading your blog.
1:46 PM
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...
Generally speaking, a left hander will be RIGHT BRAIN DOMINANT - and vice versa. So there is a direct link between handedness and brain dominance.
Thanks for the link. I will check it out.
I am glad to hear you enjoy my blog.
5:02 PM
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Okay, I'm going to look for other posts I wrote.
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