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.

I’m curious how he even knew mandarin was a thing? Was there a Chinese kid at nursery, did they go on holiday to china, or did his parents start teaching him?

I come from a family of early self taught readers who are autistic. Me, my brother, dd, nephew we could all read at 2yo, write by 3yo. I’ve never done a mensa assessment and neither has dd.

And then the same could be said for kids whose parents don't nurture their skills ect. So either method may have flaws

I agree . He won’t suddenly become not a child prodigy, by not joining Mensa. For children like this, appropriate support really helps.

Currently on 6 o clock news!

My child would never learn to count in another language because as a family we just don’t come into contact with anything like that!!

Friend's child is like this - hyperlexic - could write in mandarin and Cyrillic at 3. He's had an autism diagnosis. The friends are baffled by the hyperlexia, incredibly laid back, and couldn't stop him if they tried.

Yeap, I'm curious about the language learning too.

That's so wrong, how will they manage to keep it from the child in a few years? I didn't tell DS his IQ until he asked at 16.

Cutting a piece of playdoh into the shape of Kenya. He is very cute though!

I just saw it on the news and his mum says he's 4.

Not that it makes him any less clever of course!

I listen med to an interview with his mum today. She came across as lovely and not at all pushy parent.

If you have a child who has self taught themselves to read and also has access to YouTube then you'd be surprised what they can learn!

What is the benefit to the child though? I don’t really “get” Mensa. I was a member briefly as a teen and it just seemed to be a bunch of people doing puzzles and being a bit smug. A exclusive club to go in the CV. Maybe they are more based around support these days?

In theory shows the individual you have the potential to be the next Einstein etc

This was my concern too.

Which can't be good for the child. I could have joined DS up, he easily qualified, but saw no reason to. He's a normal teen at college now.

Widely reported on BBC too. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-64370570

My eldest was precocious in this way, reading fluently and self-taught before going to school. He is autistic and dyspraxic. I certainly wasn't inviting the BBC into the house to film him counting to whatever in French and cooing over him. Or shipping him off to Mensa for an assessment.

He is 20 next month, doing well academically at Uni, struggles socially but is slowly ans surely finding his tribe. Teaching himself to read did not help with making friends, understanding the "rules" of social engagement, or doing practical things like learning to drive, swim or tie his shoelaces.

The mother is doing this child NO FAVOURS whatsoever.

This makes me think of a man I knew whose Mensa membership card kept “accidentally” falling out of his wallet in front of people. He’s the only person I ever knew who was in Mensa or who tried to be in Mensa.

Is Mensa even a thing now?

Of course it's not ridiculous this child exists. Special children have just as much right to exist in this world as everyone else. 🙄

How do children teach themselves to read? Surely someone needs to tell them what sound each letter/digraph etc makes- they don’t just know that for example oo makes an ooh and a uh sound surely? Or even the sound that A makes- how do they know unless someone has told them? They’re not psychic?

And as for speaking other languages- his parents must have introduced him to them for him to know they exist or has he randomly googled how to count to 100 in welsh? And then magically learnt how to pronounce/ mutate accordingly?

Im not saying he’s not a genius- he’s obviously incredibly bright but I think the parents have had more involvement than they’re making out and also are very keen for the world to know about him, hence going to the media about him.

I have no problem with kids being entered for Mensa (although I think it’s a bit dubious).

But offering it exclusively to papers is shortsighted and potentially cruel.

That poor kid is now a moving target for the newspapers. First time he gets a detention or flunks and exam or is found lying in a pool of his own sick At kicking out time it will be front-page news.

Vanity over common sense and very foolish on the part of the parents.

Plenty of children teach themselves to read by identifying the words on the page as their parents read to them, or by subtitles etc.

There are so many toys cartoons and such that say that alphabet sounds I think that's how they learn the phonetic sounds and then can visually match them to the alphabet symbol. Look up hyperlexia if you are actually interested.

I learnt from book and tape sets and being read to. Initially by sight then worked out phonics backwards from that. I was three.