Isaiah Gyamfi is not your average two-year-old. At such a very young and tender age, the toddler is already making a name for himself as an academic genius who has taken a keen interest in reading, writing, and counting in different languages. Besides that, the child prodigy can also impressively solve math problems.
The languages little Gyamfi can already read, write, and count in, include English, Spanish and French. The genius also recently learned how to count up to 40 in Japanese. And he achieved that feat in less than 24 hours.
In an interview with the Mirror, Isaiah’s mom, Jazelle, said her son’s ability to quickly capture and memorize new information started when he was just five months old. “One day Isaiah was watching a phonic video on my phone on YouTube, he scrolled to the videos at the bottom and clicked on a Japanese numeracy video,” Jazelle, who is from South West London, recalled.
“He listened to it once and was fixated. He asked to watch it again, then before I knew it he would recite the numbers back to back,” she added.
“I knew then he was keen on languages, so I showed him a video in Spanish. His eyes lit up, so I decided to buy him Spanish flashcards; he absolutely loved these and would study them every day.”
Jazelle, 30, also said her son quickly learned how to count in Japanese because of the pattern. “He loves that Japanese has a pattern,” she said. “Once you learn numbers 1-10, it’s very easy to learn the rest. Japanese numbers follow a logical pattern, with a few exceptions.”
“So, it’s a continuous repeat of the same word for different numbers. For example, number 1 is ‘ichi’ and number 10 is ‘juu’….. therefore, number 11 would be juu-ichi,” she continued. “Because 10 (juu) plus 1 (ichi) is 11. Simply place the 2 words together and you’ll have 11. There’s only a few exceptions. It’s so cool once you get the hang of it!”
To improve his visual ability to capture information, Jazelle said she transformed their living room into a numeracy and literacy space when he was four months old. And at eight months old, Jazelle said Isaiah correctly identified letters anytime she asked him where a particular letter was. He started mentioning the letters by using phonics weeks later.
“I was first taken back and thought, did my eight-month-old just call out letters? I remember just laughing nervously but I was so excited and wanted to hear it again,” she told the Mirror. “I thought maybe it sounded like he said the numbers and letters but he actually said something else. But he continued to say it which confirmed what I thought.
“I remember telling his dad when he got home from work I took Isaiah to the wall where the letter and number stickers were, when he called them out we both stood there just laughing.
“We were first time parents and just felt so proud and excited.”
Jazelle has since created an Instagram account for Isaiah where she shares his learning and academic prowess.
