{"id":2989,"date":"2017-10-27T09:04:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T03:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.proeves.com\/blog\/?p=2989"},"modified":"2017-10-27T16:50:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T11:20:35","slug":"youngest-person-to-identify-196-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.proeves.com\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/10\/27\/youngest-person-to-identify-196-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"This Child Prodigy has her parents to thank for discovering her genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talent can\u2019t be taught, but it can be Awakened \u2013 Wallace Stegner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ria my 3-year-old daughter today is a world record holder for the \u201cYoungest Person to Identify 196 Countries<\/strong>\u201d.\u00a0She was 2 Years and 5 Months old when she accomplished this.<\/p>\n

So how was this possible? – Ria is gifted with great memory, but then how did she give us a clue of
\nthis talent?<\/p>\n

It was the cartoons!!! \u2013 Yes – her favourites were \u201cMasha e Orso (Masha and Bear)\u201d and \u201cPeppa Pig\u201d \u2013 We had\u00a0a restricted 1 Hour of TV watching in the evening and she would watch both these cartoon
\nshows. I and my husband would sit and watch along with her. A couple of weeks passed and my
\nhusband used to mimic the music in one of the cartoons \u2013 \u201cOshooo \u2013 backkkkk (Orso Black)!\u201d yelled
\nRia. We did not pick it up, so asked her to repeat what she was saying, she said \u201cAppa Oshooo
\nBackkk\u201d, and we understood that she meant \u201cOrso (Bear), Black\u201d but did not understand why she
\nsaid so. That evening we watched cartoon again and to our surprise, the Orso or the Bear became
\nblack after an incident with a BGM similar to what my husband mimicked before.
\nSo, my husband started testing her with more BGM\u2019s and she was able to give the cartoon name,
\ncharacter name and the scene (related to the BGM) in the cartoon \u2013 what astonished us was that,
\nsome of the episodes were new, we saw the episodes for the first time that day. Over the period of
\none month, she could recognise the first word of a song just from the BGM (I used to play cinema
\nmusic in my car, she picked it from there).<\/p>\n

As her parents, we believed that this talent of Ria will become contextually big if it is showcased
\ndifferently. But what was that \u201cdifferent\u201d thing? We were not sure. Like all other parents, we
\nthought of teaching her music not realising she was very young for music lessons. We were also not
\ncomfortable forcing her to do something that would become a routine (Studying, Music etc…), she
\nwas just 2 years and 3 months old.<\/p>\n

One day my husband purchased a block puzzle in wood with that of Countries in Europe. As I was
\npreparing dinner for Ria, my husband was pointing to each country on the puzzle and Ria was
\nrepeating. As he reached about 10 countries, he told Ria that that was enough for now and asked
\nher to go have her dinner. After her dinner, Ria asked for the puzzle, My husband started naming the
\ncountries rather quickly (marked by lack of attention) to our surprise, she was pointing to each of
\nthese countries, as it was uttered, on the puzzle correctly.<\/p>\n

We were able to cover all the European countries in 2 days. What next? \u2013 We wanted to aim big. Our\u00a0plan was to train Ria to show all 196 countries, which will be a new world record. However, we
\ndecided to follow these rules whilst attempting the record:
\n– No coercing .
\n– No reprimanding \/corporal punishments.
\n– No Luring (if you do this, we give you a chocolate) \u2013 STRICT NO.
\nThe initial problem was getting a world map as big, here in Milan, Italy \u2013 It was made to order and
\nthe names of the countries were in Italian. We lost a week waiting for the map to be brought from
\nIndia by a friend.<\/p>\n

Truths began to unravel on Day 1 –<\/p>\n