A 2 years and 6 months old girl from Louisville, Kentucky (USA) is the youngest member of the Mensa Genius Club, an international society of people with a high intelligence quotient (IQ).
Isla McNabb took the IQ test in May, six months after her 2nd birthday, and scored a 99th percentile, making her one of the select 1% of the population to achieve that score. The information came from The Washington Post newspaper, which spoke to Isla’s parents.
The assessment came after the girl’s parents, Amanda and Jason McNabb, noticed a number of signs their daughter might be smarter than expected for a 2yearold.
In the beginning, Isla used plastic letters to form words near the corresponding objects. Parents found the words “chair” next to a chair, “sofa” next to the furniture, and even “cat” next to the family pet.
When the girl reached her second birthday, her parents gave her a blackboard and taught her the sound of the letters. To illustrate how to form a word, the father wrote “red”, red in English, and the girl promptly read it.
“She plumbed it and said ‘red,'” the father told the Post. They wrote the names of other colors and the girl read them all out.
“Anything we put on, she seemed to learn right away. It was amazing,” Jason continued.
The 8yearold boy is the youngest Brazilian to be admitted to the “International Club of Geniuses”.
After this, the McNabbs began teaching their daughter other words, who almost always identified the phonemes. Shortly afterwards Isla could read.
It didn’t take long for reading to become writing, and one day Amanda saw that her daughter had spelled the word “mother” during a game, even though she hadn’t officially learned it.
That’s when she was researching psychologists who did IQ tests and found one an hour away. The professional said he doesn’t rate children under the age of 4 but was curious about Isla’s abilities and decided to take the test.
According to the StanfordBinet Intelligence Scale Isla scored “superior” or “very superior” in all categories and reached the 99th percentile.
Despite being in the 1% of the population with a high IQ, Isla leads a normal life for a 2yearold child.
She looks at children’s drawings, goes to preschool and loves making new friends. “Normal children’s stuff,” concludes the mother.