4-YEAR-OLD JOINS MENSA

A 4-year-old British boy has become the UK’s youngest member of Mensa. Little over-achiever Teddy Hobbs taught himself to read as a toddler and can count to 100 in seven languages. Teddy’s mom, Beth Hobbs, of Portishead, said he learned to read when he was just 26 months old by watching children’s television and copying the sounds of letters. At one point, his mom says, “He was playing on his tablet, making these sounds that I just didn’t recognize, and I asked him what it was, and he said, ‘Mummy, I’m counting in Mandarin.’” Teddy can already count to 100 in six non-native languages, including French, German, Spanish, Welsh and Mandarin. The couple had Teddy tested and found he has the letter and word recognition of a child of about 9 years old. He scored 139 in an IQ test and was in the 99.5th percentile for his age. Mensa, the high IQ society, welcomes people who score at the 98th percentile or higher.
* As long as Teddy pays the monthly membership dues, for the dances and newsletters and such.
* Seven languages. What are his plans? To hang out at the U.N. in case somebody needs something counted?
* How smart is he? Did he buy the story about a stork bringing him?
* I didn’t even know there were seven languages.