This Three-Year-Old's Mind-Blowing Talent: Reading and Counting in Seven Languages
Meet Teddy Hobbs, the extraordinary three-year-old from England who can read and count up to 100 in seven different languages. He has already joined Mensa, a global high IQ society.
Teddy Hobbs from Somerset, England, is only three years old, yet he can read and count in seven different languages.
His parents, Beth, 31, and Will, 41, share that by the time he was two years and four months old, while his peers were 'maybe' starting to recognize the letters of the English alphabet, their son could fluently read the Harry Potter series.
"He devoured them," they laugh, explaining that today he can read and count up to 100 in six languages besides English.
He's learned Mandarin, Welsh, French, Spanish, and German, and recently joined the exclusive club of child prodigies akin to composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who began playing the harpsichord at just three years old.
In England, Teddy has already become a member of Mensa, a popular international society that includes people with very high IQs, considered to be above the 98th percentile worldwide. "Teddy passed a very difficult IQ test for children his age and was admitted to Mensa only after succeeding," say representatives of the 'smart' club.
His surprised parents, who knew he was smart but did not expect he would be 'this' gifted, are amazed. "We didn’t realize he was so brilliant," they say, highlighting that while his status as a child prodigy is exciting, they don't ignore that he appears unusual among his peers.
"He’s not autistic, and he doesn’t have ADHD. But since he’s such a genius at such a young age, he often does things that seem unusual to children his age. For instance, he’s not enthusiastic about toys and doesn’t watch TV. Nothing escapes his attention. He memorizes everything he listens to. But he doesn't like playing games with devices, like other kids. He enjoys using apps to learn how to count to 100 in Mandarin and other languages."
