A toddler has become Britain’s youngest Mensa member at the tender age of three – reading fluently and counting in seven languages.
Teddy Hobbs managed to gain entry to the exclusive organisation for the intellectual ‘elite’ aged just three years and nine months.
The child prodigy from Portishead, Somerset, can already count to 100 in six non-native languages, including Mandarin, Welsh, French, Spanish and German.
Teddy, now four, taught himself to read aged just two years and four months – and is now capable of even reading Harry Potter books, when his parents allow.
He even likes to relax – with a word search. Little Teddy was admitted to Mensa late last year after smashing an IQ test with the group, scoring 139 out of 160 on the Stanford Binet test and shocking his parents, who had no idea quite how smart he was.
Beth Hobbs, 31 and her husband Will, 41, say they had never expected Theodore – who prefers to be known as ‘Teddy’ – to get into the group, and never planned to apply for membership.
Beth said: “We were told that three was the youngest age of anyone they had accepted into MENSA in the UK, though there was someone in the US aged two.
“To be honest it’s a total fluke really that he got in. We never aimed to get him in, and even when we had him assessed, that was so that we could help him when he starts school in September – we never planned on getting him in to MENSA.
“We did an IQ test, where we basically told him that he was going to sit and do some puzzles with a lady for an hour, and he thought it was the most wonderful thing.
“After he completed it we were told he was eligible by MENSA’s child advisor – so we thought he may as well join.
“We were a bit like ‘pardon?’. We knew he could do things that his peers couldn’t, but I don’t think we realised quite how good he was.
“We took him to nursery afterwards and he had to come home after because he was so sad about having to stop doing puzzles. He’ll even do word searches to calm down.
“He wasn’t even that interested in what MENSA is, but he’s just about beginning to understand that he is more capable than other children – so when school starts I think he’ll realise more.
“We’re not sure how he ended up this way, my husband and I are not linguists – so we always joke that the embryologist must have slipped a needle or something to make him this way.
“Everyone we have spoken to have been fabulous because it’s been really hard to find any support, but we have no idea why he is so clever.
“He doesn’t currently qualify for autism or ADHD diagnoses – and because he’s just so far ahead it’s hard to get help for him with his learning at that age.”
Teddy and his younger sister conceived via IVF, or in vitro fertilisation.
Beth says that Teddy’s genius comes as a blessing and a curse though, with him showing little interest in some of the more ‘normal’ things a young boy may enjoy like games and TV.
She said: “It comes with it’s challenges, my friends can say ‘oh should we have some c-a-k-e’ and their kids will not know what they’re saying, but Teddy will immediately spell it out and want some.
