Teddy is UK’s youngest-ever member of the International Gifted and Gifted Association | Abroad

Theodore ‘Teddy’ Hobbs, from Portishead, UK, taught himself to read during the corona lockdown. He was barely two years old at the time, according to various British media today. The boy did that by watching television and playing on a tablet. His parents didn’t notice. “He copied the sound of words and letters, and began to find and see those letters. When we sent him back to the shelter after a corona lockdown, we told the supervisors that we thought he had taught himself to read.” says mother Beth Hobbs BBC. The shelter called Teddy’s parents late: the supervisors had checked whether Teddy could read, and it was correct.

At the age of 26 months, the boy could easily read a book to his parents. But that was not enough for the toddler. “Every few months he picked a new topic, it seemed,” says Beth. “Sometimes it was numbers. It was tables for a while, that was an intense period. Then came countries and maps. And then learning to count in other languages.”

His parents saw Teddy playing on his tablet and heard him make noises. ,,I did not recognize the sounds and asked him what he was doing. ‘Oh mama,’ he said, ‘I’m counting in Mandarin.” The child can now count to one hundred in seven languages, including Mandarin, Welsh, French, Spanish, German and English. He also reads books about Harry Potter.

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Beth (31) and her husband Will (41) have been amazed by their son’s exceptional abilities in recent years and had his intelligence level tested. “Teddy was our first child, conceived through IVF, so we couldn’t compare,” it sounds. The parents ended up at Mensa. Members of the non-profit organization are among the 2 percent smartest people in the population. The gifted club also accepts very young children. To become a member, aspiring members must take a supervised IQ test.

Teddy was 3 years and 7 months old at the time of the test and was found to be in the 99.5 percentile for IQ. In other words, he was among the 0.5 percent most intelligent people in the general population for the approved IQ test, well above the 2 percent required to be accepted by Mensa. According to the assessment report and further tests, Teddy already had the letter and word recognition of an eight-year-10-month-old child in his tests last year. He turned out to be more than five years ahead of his peers.

“We were just blown away,” says Beth. For the time being, she is trying to offer her son as normal a childhood as possible. “He is now starting to figure out that his friends can’t read yet and he doesn’t understand exactly why. It is very important to us that he keeps both feet on the ground. If he can do such things, then that’s fine.” she says The Guardian. ,,But luckily he also says that friends can run faster than him. So we all have our talents.” And she concludes: ,,All we wish for Teddy is that he is a good and happy person. The wish of all parents.””

Teddy is one of the youngest Mensa members ever. The American girl Isla McNabb was 2.5 years old in the middle of last year when she joined the organization in her native country.