The wife of the prime minister, Rosmah Mansor, visited University of California, Berkeley yesterday to get an insight on its Advanced Talent Development Programme (ATDP) in a move to establish cooperation with them on development of gifted children.

Rosmah, who is also the patron of Malaysia’s Permata early childhood education programmes, held discussions with the ATDP's director Lisa Kala on the matter.

They exchanged ideas on nurturing the talents of intellectually gifted children of both parties.

Rosmah is accompanying Najib Abdul Razak on a week-long working visit to the United States, which ended today.

The Permata programmes include Permata Pintar which caters to the needs of intellectually gifted children, Permata Seni for nurturing children with high academic achievements and talented in the arts while Permata Insan guides children on Islamic teachings based on the Quran and As-Sunnah (conduct of Prophet Muhammad).

Also included is Perkasa@remaja which focuses on lessons on leadership that are applicable to catalyse social change in young adults who are exposed to all kinds of risks.

Two others are Permata Kurnia, a programme for children with autism and a children's hospital. Both these two projects are being implemented.

- Bernama