Many people have taken advantage of the long-lasting coronavirus pandemic to learn something new, but few have achieved what a talented kid from the UK has done. Teddy Hobbs might be one of the smartest kids alive.
At just 4 years old, Teddy could count to 100 before he was 2. Now he can count in seven different languages, including his native language.
“I just thought that, you know, every kid has their own quirk. Each kid develops slightly faster at something than the other, and we just thought that was their thing,” says their mom, Beth.
The child who learned to read at the age of two surprises the world: Teddy, a British, has just been accepted at Mensa, an international body for gifted children. The little one, of course, is the youngest of all.
His mother told the British BBC that he has amazing skills like counting to 100 in 7 languages, including Mandarin. Today, Teddy is just four years old and learned to read “by watching children’s television and copying the sounds of the letters,” describes the family.
“He started tracing letters on his own, so when we sent him back to preschool after the coronavirus shutdown, we told them we thought he taught himself to read,” explains Beth Hobbs, the mom.
“They called us from kindergarten, who had sent a kindergarten teacher to check, and they told us she could read.”
“He was playing with his tablet, making sounds I didn’t recognize and I asked him what it was and he said: ‘Mom, I’m counting in Mandarin'”, said the woman, who said the situation surprised her.
According to the boy’s mother: “Teddy is starting to realize that his friends can’t read yet and he doesn’t know why, but it’s very important to us to keep him grounded.”
“If he can do these things then that’s fine, but he sees it as ‘I can read but my friend can outrun me,’ so we all have our individual talents,” she added.
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His brilliance has caught the attention of Mensa, which bills itself as “the oldest and largest high-IQ company in the world.”
Teddy became its youngest member in Britain. The organization only accepts people with an equal or higher score at the 98th percentile on an intelligence test.
“He was three years and seven months old and they said he had the letter and word recognition of an eight-year-old,” his mother recalls.
Little Teddy’s impressive academic record includes learning to read by age two. “Teddy did all this himself. When we go out and offer him a choice of treats, he wants a book instead of chocolate.”her mother said.
Despite being a genius child, his mother has made it clear that he is still, when push comes to shove, just a child. “He’s a normal four-year-old,” she says. “Poop makes it so much fun.”
His family wonders if Teddy’s little sister can follow in his footsteps, but they know she has some big, but really small, shoes to fill.
Last year, Isla McNabb, of Kentucky, became Mensa’s youngest member at just 2 1/2 years old.
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.