The Prodigy's Cousin Read Online Free PDF

four, he was writing out paragraphs.
    He looked for any opportunity to calculate. At first, he zeroed in on dates. William began asking people their age and month of birth, information he used to compute birth year. Around the time he turned four, he got his hands on a perpetual calendar and began calculating the day of the week on which different events occurred. When the family’s Apple TV displayed the year in which a particular song came out, William would report how old his mom had been that year and how old he had been, a calculation that often drove him into negative digits.
    By the time he was four, William could multiply two-digit numbers together. He could complete multiple-step problems in his head. At four years and three months, his parents videoed him swapping math problems with his uncle, beaming between bites of applesauce as he answered “5” when his uncle asked him to solve 9 squared minus 76. “I guess everybody’s smart,” William said afterward as he ran from the table. “Oh, not quite as smart as you, my goodness,” Lucie said to herself, taking a deep breath as she wiped off the table and picked up an empty applesauce cup.On a standardized test he took a few months later, at four and a half, William scored better than 99.9 percent of five-year-olds who took the test.
    For all of his impressive—more than impressive, sometimes shocking—intellectual abilities, William struggled to integrate in a classroom setting. He enrolled in nursery school with a therapist, just as Alex had done. He had mostly overcome his language delays by then: he had more typical back-and-forth exchanges with others; he initiated conversations and asked questions. But following a schedule was a feat beyond William’s abilities. He resisted leaving behind any project he hadn’t finished. If a teacher tried to help him put things back in place to move on to the next activity, he would swat her hand away.
    In junior kindergarten, he hardly ever interacted with the other children. He rarely participated in group activities without prompting; he preferred to let his own interests dictate his pursuits. He had trouble remaining seated, struggled with a short attention span, and frequently disrupted other children’s play.
    He still couldn’t take care of himself. He couldn’t get himself dressed or undressed. While he had the dexterity to button his shirt and tie his shoes, he struggled to stay focused on the task long enough to complete it. When dressing to go outside for recess during senior kindergarten, he was frequently distracted; recess often ended before William had a chance to go outside. Even when his parents broke down what he was supposed to do at home—walk to your drawer, open it, get a T-shirt, and pull it over your head—William would wander off before he finished the task. “He’s off in his brain,” Lucie said. “It’s such an amusing place that it’s really, really hard to keep him in the here and now sometimes.”
    But over the next couple of years, things got easier.He began taking an ADHD medication, and his ability to stay on task improved. His doctor tinkered with his dosage and added an anti-anxiety medication to the mix. More improvement still. Eventually, William could make it through the school day without his therapist. He still needed more prompting from the teacher than most other kids to complete tasks, but it was progress.
    Along the way, Lucie and Mike realized that William had an epic ability—and desire—to process novel information. He craved new topics. The richer in detail, the better. Lucie and Mike fought to keep a constant stream of dense reference books at the ready for William’s birthday and Christmas gifts. Upon receiving a new one, he grew giddy. He got a glint in his eye and threw himself at the material.
    Lucie and Mike saw that glee when William pored over the atlas he received for