FOUR-YEAR-OLD BECOMES MENSA MEMBER

Teddy Hobbs is a four-year-old toddler who taught himself to read at the age of only two. He’s also able to count to 100 in six non-native languages, including Mandarin.

At the age of three, Teddy was granted membership to Mensa, the largest high-IQ society in the world, according to its website.

The society only accepts people who score at the 98th percentile or higher. The intelligence test completed by potential members has to be approved by Mensa.

According to Beth, Teddy’s mother, his nursery was shocked when she said he taught himself to read during lockdown.

He taught himself to read at just 26 months “by watching children’s television and copying the sounds of letters. He started tracing the letters and so when we sent him back to nursery after Covid lockdown we told them we thought he’d taught himself how to read.

“We had a phone call back from the nursery, who’d sent a pre-school teacher to check, who said ‘yes he can read!’”

His parents were shocked when he taught himself to count in Mandarin.

“He was playing on his tablet, making these sounds that I just didn’t recognise, and I asked what it was, and he said, “Mummy, I’m counting in Mandarin.”

Image credit: Interesting Engineering