Four-year-old whiz kid wows parents and teachers

The third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Current English describes a genius as "An exceptionally intelligent or able person", a description which fits four-year-old Xestajuan Campbell, a resident of Cold Spring, Hanover, perfectly.

'Zesty', as he is affectionately called by his family, is the first child of Giovani Campbell and Annalee Lewis. He is not presently registered in any school, but weeks away from his fifth birthday in May, Xestajuan, among other things, can read any text up to seventh grade level, knows his time tables up to 25 and does mathematical calculations inclusive of fractions. Giovani said that he has been tutoring his son at home and noticed his extraordinary brilliance from he was about two years old.

WITH EASE

"I was teaching him the letters of the alphabet and I noticed then that he could say the letters of the alphabet forward and in reverse fluently. The reverse part of it I did not teach him as I cannot even do that myself," he stated. When the news team gave Xestajuan complicated multiplication problems, he answered them correctly with ease.

"He can answer those and more," his father boasted. "For example when I teach him multiplications, I teach him multiplications in all areas even in levels higher than his. So for example while he learnt his time table, I also taught him how to multiply fractions because multiplying fractions is just still multiplying numbers. So I taught him at the primary level, and he is even up to secondary level now." Xestajuan showed off his word knowledge while reading a secondary school level textbook and gave a glimpse of his Spanish counting from one to 20.

Giovani said that no certified professional assessment has been done on Xestajuan yet but there are plans to do so. He said they work together for at least one hour each day and that Xestajuan grasps things on his own as much as 40 per cent of the time.

"I have a book which guides me in how and what to teach him daily, but while I am following that procedure which was developed within the education sector, I am also giving him some bonus tutoring, some extra things, so I teach him at his level whilst I am also teaching him at a higher level," Giovani stated.

"He is much smarter than kids way older than him," Giovani stated, arguing that he is now looking at getting his son into the Gurney's Mount Primary School this September and then on to Merlene Ottey High School. Both schools are close to their home but Giovani would prefer schools with larger student populations for socialisation purposes.

"I want him to learn how to socialise and how to understand people because we are living in a world wherein we have to know how to manage people and systems," he argued.

Jasmin Johnson, principal of Bethel Primary School in Hopewell, did a brief assessment of Xestajuan recently and confirmed that he is no ordinary child.

"I believe that Zesty is functioning way above his age level. He read two passages for me ... and he read them very well. He was very fluent, he pronounced words that even 12-year-olds may find a little bit hard to read," she stated. Johnson noted that in her encounter with the youngster, he is well mannered and well-spoken.

"I believe that the only problem that I see right now is that he needs to socialise with other students," she said. Johnson argued that, at four years old, she sees greatness in Xestajuan, adding that he needs to be enrolled in a primary school immediately which will help in his socialisation development. Johnson said she will be assisting the family in getting him enrolled in a school.