2-y-o whiz kid marvels parents, teachers

Sindone Farquharson always prayed that her child would be both smart and healthy - and those prayers have seemingly been answered with her two-year-old son, Romarkion Wilmot.

With eyes sparkling and a complementary smile, Romarkion, on Tuesday, sat in his classroom at the Seventh-day Baptist Early Childhood Institution in Spanish Town, St Catherine, to showcase his brilliance. Without much effort, he called out more than 10 three-letter words showed to him by his principal, spelt his full name, as well as counted and rearranged numbers in their correct order.

He can count from one to 100, count backwards from 20, and reads at the level of a six-year-old.. Farquharson told THE WEEKEND STAR that she recognised he was a genius when she showed him a book with shapes only once, and he easily remembered them.

"I realised he remembered all the shapes and also some colours, so I was like, no, him have a really good memory," Farquharson said.

In addition to basic shapes, Romarkion, who started school at age one, is able to identify more complex ones, such as the hexagon (six sides) and octagon (eight sides). Farquharson decided to educate him more and it was during that process that she recognised that his reasoning capabilities are far beyond his years.

"One day I saw him tek up the 'W' and ... then he flipped it and said 'M', and I was like 'hmmmm, he's really smart'," she said. "He loves books. He doesn't really play with toys ... if yuh give him toys and books, he chooses books."

Principal of the Seventh-day Baptist Early Childhood Institution, Millicent Smith, told THE WEEKEND STAR that although she has encountered brilliant children before, she has never meet a child with his level of genius at such a young age. She was alerted to Romarkion's abilities by her granddaughter, who would watch him in her office while she worked.

"One day I said to her, 'How is Romarkion doing?' and she said to me, 'Mommy, he's a smarty.' I said, 'How yuh mean he's a smarty?' and she said, 'Everything I give him on the cell phone, he knows it,'" Smith said. She added that after hearing her granddaughter's words, she decided to test the young boy's brilliance.

"May of last year when she had him, I decided to run a little test on him. I had some cards and I brought him in my office. I put the cards down on the floor. I had the capital and the common letters and I said, 'Romarkian baby, I'm giving you cards' and I realised that he was able to match all the common to the capital, and I said, 'Well, you are a genius,'" Smith related. She said that she was also impressed by his ability to recognise money.

"The Government had sent us some calendars with the new money and when I got them, I had them in my office and I started putting them on my desk to say this for this class. And he said 'money'. I said, 'Money, baby?' He said, 'Yes, $50.' I said, 'Mighty God of Daniel, how could you ever know that this is $50?'" she recounted. She added that he was able to recognise larger notes, such as the $100 and $1,000 bills.

For proud dad Romar Wilmot, his son is the joy of his life and he actively teaches him new information. He even seeks to ensure that Romarkian enjoys learning.

"Once it's fun, him will ketch on to it ... he has a very powerful memory," Wilmot said. "Sometimes he would normally correct me when I'm intentionally showing him something that's off. Him just correct mi, like in reading."