3 year old member of Mensa.

[Toddlerteaplease]

Article in todays Times, (don't know how to link)
AIBU to think this is ridiculous, let him be a toddler, nurture his interests of course. But this is OTT, and asking for trouble. Apparently he wants to go to university and be a doctor.

Why is it OTT and asking for trouble? Does he have to be involved in things that normal kids wont do?

Dont know much I thought when I read it was nice, but i dont know whats required of a youngest member of MENSA- dont know really

Because he needs to be allowed to be a 3 year old child. Learning social skills etc appropriate for his age. There is more to like than academic achievement. Other child prodigies have really struggled later in life.

Learning social skills etc appropriate for his age. There is more to like than academic achievement.

The piece I read suggested he was doing other stuff like swimming and liked playing with playdough.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mensas-youngest-member-teddy-hobbs-reads-at-two-then-picks-up-mandarin-kbgb67203?shareToken=cd6f9da5c1ff16e7484c952eb408c59a

I think the child and children like him are more likely to struggle later in life no matter what because they are so different compared to their peers, especially growing up.

I would be going for an autism assessment, not a Mensa assessment, but hey ho.

Self-taught precocious reading is hyperlexia and most hyperlexics are autistic, just before anyone jumps on me.

The BBC article said he'd learned to read and count in different languages of his own accord. It seems reasonable for his parents to find out his IQ - I'd be curious in the same position! I wish him well for the future.

Precisely what I mean.

It’ll be interesting to see where he is in 20 years time.

Most mensa prodigies I’ve come across in real life ending up being caught up to and surpassed by their peers (especially emotionally).

Getting him tested by MENSA isn't going to change that though, is it?

He's clearly very very different to other kids his age either way.

It also doesn't need to be all over the media. He can't consent to that.

My son taught himself to read when he was 2 (he’s just turned 3). Can’t say a MENSA test crossed my mind, but part of me is curious exactly how smart he is.

And yeah @Jellycats4life , I won’t jump on you, my kid is still technically waiting for his assessment but he’s autistic.

I do worry about him going to school and getting bored or being ahead. And I do encourage my son to be a 3 year old- but also he wants to be challenged or he gets bored. It’s a tough line to walk. It can also feel like he’s growing up too quickly- my son wants to read his own bedtime stories most of the time.

The mother is quoted as saying that he is too young for an assessment so it would appear to be on her radar.

You have to hope his future is a happy one.

99.5th percentile is only 1 in 200, the child is precocious but not exceptional.

Try having a child who has an insatiable thirst for knowledge. You’d soon see that this “let a child be a child” thing is impossible sometimes.

My son is autistic and could also read at this age. Taking a book off him would have been like taking a phone off a teenager, sometimes you have to run with it when they’re obsessed with learning . He’s incredibly well informed in all areas. He watches PMQs every Wednesday after school and doesn’t bother with kids telly ever.

I’m not boasting, he’s just passionate about learning. Endless questions from
morning to night for me and his dad. It’s intense and sometimes draining.

its not always pushy parents - we’re laid back to the point of laziness in this house - or we would be if given a chance.

It’s all bollocks really. My parents had me tested by Mensa as a child out of curiosity and I came out with a genius level iq. I was bright but nothing special. I had membership for a year and everyone knew it was rubbish so my parents didn’t renew.

He will struggle later in life regardless - most of these people do.

Most of 'these people' struggle later in life because they are autistic in an NT world, not because they are extremely clever.

Remember James Harries?

What's concerning is the need for the parents to put this into the public domain. They will have some job keeping him 'private' now. Not sure what the child gains by plunging him into the spotlight.

I don't think there is anything in this story that makes me believe they aren't going to raise him like a normal child. He has taught himself to count to 100 in mandarin FGS - I'd be curious to have him assessed too!

the assessment was an hour on a laptop that he found fun. where's the harm for the kid?

I heard the mum on the radio this morning and she sounded pretty normal, although maybe a bit deliberately naive - she can’t have really been that surprised that most 2 year olds don’t teach themselves to read and to count in mandarin - but she sounded like they were encouraging him to do normal toddler things as much as possible.

His mum was on Radio 4's Today programme this morning. She was down to earth and good humoured about it all. They sound like a lovely family.

Hellfire. I was off the scale genius at that age - tested in a national survey of toddlers back in the 60s. I too was a precocious reader and speaker. Advice to my parents: either nurture it* and spend your lives growing it, living round it, accommodating it or let her play out, get dirty, skin her knees, lose the obsessional focus on words. My parents chose fighting me out of the house, out of books, into ponds, bicycles, kites etc. I can't imagine what it would be like these days, with t'internet etc. Hellacious!

I was soon engrossed in small wildlife, giving worms a lift on my trike, getting pee'd on by caterpillars. I still have that IQ. But I also have life skills. Unlike the couple of the other kids in the same group I kept in touch with (or rather our parents did, initially), who even no win the late 50s/early 60s find social interaction very taxing.

High IQ isn't always the kind of gift you want to hold most dear.

*it being the IQ, not me!

I was like that, not autistic (or not diagnosed) but absolutely engrossed in the news, adult news, and reading newspapers, looking for library books with dense text, diagrams, no pictures - apparently I knew a lot of technical woodwork for a few years. Never picked up a handsaw.

I do hope they get the balance right for him!

Mensa membership in itself is fairly meaningless, but that is presumably why this story has caught press attention. The mother sounds very realistic, and not in the least pushy, so I suspect he has every prospect of leading a happy childhood wherever his learning takes him.