Four-year-old Teddy Hobbs has become the youngest member of Mensa in Britain. The association, which brings together the most intelligent people in the world, only recognizes to its members those who have achieved at least 98 percent on an intelligence test they supervise, writing: guardian.
Teddy, who lives in Portishead, Somerset, learned to read at the age of two while watching TV and playing on his tablet without his parents noticing. After that, he began to learn foreign languages, and today, in addition to English, he can count to a hundred in six other languages, including Mandarin.
Teddy’s mother, Beth, said they first thought her son was making sounds while playing on his tablet, but then realized he was saying numbers in Mandarin.
“He seemed to pick up a new subject that interested him about every two months. For a while it was counting, then countries and maps, and he learned to count in different languages. He was playing on his tablet—we put proper games on it like Thomas the steam engine—and he was making sounds I didn’t recognize and I asked him what It was on him and he said, “Hey, Mom, I figure in Mandarin,” said Beth A BBC Radio 4 Today in his presentation.
Although Mensa does not usually assess children, it does provide support for parents to get their children tested with the help of an educational psychologist. “Teddy was three years and seven months old when he took the one-hour test. I was worried if he would be able to sit in front of a laptop for an hour, but he thoroughly enjoyed it,” his mother said.
