KEY POINTS:
The term "child prodigy" might bring to mind the young Mozart or those maths whizzes who are through the times tables and on to calculus by the age of 7.
But child educational expert Bernadette Tynan has a much broader approach to budding genius. The junior brain trainer
sees signs of high intelligence in the most unlikely corners of the school playground in the new reality series Make Your Child Brilliant (TV3, Wednesdays, 7.30pm).
If nannies can make it as TV stars, then perhaps it was only a matter of time before someone called in a camera-friendly education expert to star in prime time.
Tynan is the latest in a line of telly gurus with a pretty much guaranteed audience. As with houses, diet and clothing, children's education rates high on the list of society's preoccupations.
And parents seldom need encouraging when it comes to regarding their progeny as creative wunderkinder.
In her search for a child she can transform into a whiz kid in two months, she sees evidence of brilliance in what most of us would call larking about.
The kid who caught her eye in last night's episode really won her heart when he stuck his tongue in a hole in a metal pipe to stop the water running out.
That, combined with his earlier performance in a go-kart building exercise - offering to throw in a month's free insurance with the end product - had her convinced that this was the worthy recipient of her brain-training techniques.
I was looking forward to seeing Tynan turn some unassuming nipper into a junior Einstein solving cold fusion or coming up with the definitive cure for global warming.
But no, apparently her definition of gifted in last night's episode meant being a good potential salesperson.
Spotting children's hidden talents seems to require a lot of fancy equipment, such as the elaborate playground puzzle at her research centre, which allowed her to discover that business with the tongue.
The child Tynan selects to work with more closely is treated like they've won a million bucks.
"You're through to the final stage!" she told the boy with the clever tongue.
The prize was personal instruction in her brain training techniques - visualisation, confidence building - with the goal of presenting a Dragons' Den-style pitch for a toy he invented to a big manufacturing firm.
And the result? Well, you couldn't fault the kid's willingness to give it a go and the tearful delight the parents took in their boy's performance was surely a heart-warmer.
But you couldn't help thinking any outgoing kid would do the same with two months' intensive grooming.
For all the effort involved, Tynan's message seems to be the simple fact that a bit of encouragement at the right place and time can work wonders for a child's confidence.
It will be interesting to see over the next five episodes what other brand of bright spark she decides to cultivate: a budding mortician, perhaps, or real estate agent.
Or one of those geniuses who dream up new permutations of makeover TV.
