Submitted for your consideration: one outwardly normal 15-month old, momentarily unsupervised by Geekdad.
Subject child uses remote (deftly avoiding exact duplicate with dead batteries) to turn on television and change channels to XM on DirectTV "American Standards" tune about "A Good Day" and, for him, it was.
Preliminary conclusion: Blind Luck
Episode two, same day: Subject is left momentarily unsupervised (you might think this is a Geekdad pattern, sorry, Geekmom in the driver’s seat) Parent re-enters room to find TV on again and Pink Panther DVD playing.
Conclusion? OK, no real evidence for genius here, but I’m definitely seeing some learned behavior. He’s identifying the remote with the TV and is aware that pushing buttons gets him results. From the grin on his face when we come back in the room, he’s having fun experimenting. He’s able to tell which remotes work, probably by watching which ones we use and which ones we try to encourage him to use for play.
What learned behavior are you seeing in your kids? Any budding geniuses?
