Bernadette Tynan

Tynan was born in Bury in 1966 to parents of Irish descent. She did a BA and masters in London, graduated from Cambridge university with a master's degree in education, and was a senior lecturer at the Research Centre for Able Children at the Westminster Institute, Oxford Brookes university.^[2][3]

Tynan's book Your Child Can Think Like A Genius was published in 2004, and reached 2nd on the Singapore Straits Times bestseller list in the non-fiction category.^[4][5] The book advocated less formal forms of education, and deprecated the use of academic qualifications and numerical measures to quantify intelligence.^[3]

In 2008 Tynan presented the television series Make Your Child Brilliant, where selected children underwent her training techniques which focused on hands-on learning.^[6] The series aired in the UK, Australia, New Zealand,^[7] and Canada. The series was accompanied by the launch of book written by Tynan of the same name.^[8]

Tynan was a critic of what she saw as the UK's "exam-crazed culture",^[9] and believed that computer gaming could potentially harm the parent-child bond.^[10] Critics characterised her methods as "conjur[ing] up concerns about hot-housing"^[11] and of being selective.^[12]

At the age of 22 Tynan was briefly engaged to be married to the computer entrepreneur and inventor Clive Sinclair, then 48, whom she had met at a Mensa meeting in Blackpool. Tynan broke off the engagement.^[13][14]

Tynan died in 2017 from endometrial cancer.^[15]

Tynan was the author of books including:

• Your Child Can Think Like A Genius (Thorsons, 2004)^[3]
• Make Your Child Brilliant (Hardie Grant Books, 2008)^[8]