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Four-year-old boy joins Mensa after teaching himself to read as a toddler

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Meet Teddy Hobbs.

This four-year-old boy from southern England is Mensa's youngest U.K. member.

The child taught himself to read at age two, and can now count to 100 in several languages, including Mandarin.

His mother, Beth Hobbs, told the BBC that Teddy started showing interest in educational TV shows during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Teddy gained entry into the high-IQ society at the age of three, after completing a Mensa IQ test with a score of 139 out of 160.

Founded in England in the 1940s, Mensa is a group with membership based on scoring in "the upper two per cent of the general population on an approved intelligence test."

On its website, the group says it has about 145,000 members, and describes its purposes as fostering human intelligence, encouraging research into intelligence and providing a stimulating environment for those involved.

 

Learn more about Teddy in the video at the top of this article.
 

In this still image from video, Beth Hobbs explains how her son Teddy gained an appetite for learning. (BBC via Reuters)

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