I love these stories. I worked with geniuses who created technology that we take for granted (and carry around or wear). They were great to talk to as they spoke with different words on how things are related and put together. They explained things on another plane of knowledge that required me to expand my thinking to deal with them.

It also confirms how different we are. I have relatives through marriage in Denmark who believe in Jante’s Law to bash American’s. This kind of flies in the face of what they believe, but then they were triple jabbed so they aren’t that smart.

Story begins here:

A toddler has become one of the youngest people ever to become a member of MENSA, after he taught himself to read at the age of two.

Now four years old, Teddy Hobbs, began reading during the coronavirus lockdown.

Staggeringly, when he was only 26 months old, he was able to read a book fluently to his parents, Beth and Will.

After that, the youngster progressed to learning how to count up to 100 in Mandarin, Somerset Live reports.

His 31-year-old mum Beth said: “He has always been interested in books so we made sure he had plenty around.

“But, during the lockdown, he started to take a real interest, and by the age of 26 months, he had taught himself to read.

Teddy Hobbs, now four, managed to gain entry to the exclusive organisation for the intellectual ‘elite’ aged just three years and nine months last year (

Image: Beth Hobbs / SWNS)

“He then moved onto numbers and was learning times tables. We got him a tablet the following Christmas for him to play games on. But instead, he taught himself to count up to 100 in mandarin.”

The child prodigy can already count to 100 in six non-native languages, including Mandarin, Welsh, French, Spanish and German.

Beth and Will were confused by his unheard of talents whilst still a toddler, and so got in touch with health visitors to ask them to assess Teddy.

“With him looking forward to starting school, we wanted to have some sort of assessment so we knew the level of skills he was going to start school with.” said Beth.

The child prodigy from Portishead, Bristol, can already count to 100 in six non-native languages, including Mandarin, Welsh, French, Spanish and German (

Image: Beth Hobbs / SWNS)

“Teddy was our first child and as he was conceived via IVF, we have nothing to compare him with.”

Continuing to search for support for their son, the couple approached MENSA for guidance.

Teddy, then aged three years and seven months old, had to undergo an hour long online assessment with experts.

“I was worried about him being able to sit in front of a laptop for an hour, but he absolutely loved it.“ said Beth.

Experts then revealed that Teddy sat in the 99.5 percentile for IQ.

Teddy, who starts school in September, received a certificate confirming his membership of MENSA (

Image: Beth Hobbs / SWNS)

Experts then revealed that Teddy sat in the 99.5 percentile for IQ (

Image: Beth Hobbs

GRTWT