Very young yet very smart

A two-year-old girl from Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K has become the youngest ever female member of British Mensa. Georgia Brown, the youngest of five children astounded experts by scoring 152 points in an IQ test, putting her in the top 2% of the population for her age. Those with an average IQ would score around 100 points in the same test.

Georgia's mother, Lucy, said "It's fantastic. We're so proud as a family." She had spotted that her daughter was a strikingly quick learner. Georgia was crawling at five months, walking at nine months and, by 18 months, was having proper conversations.

The Brown family called Professor Joan, from Middlesex University, to test her IQ level in relation to others of her age. Professor Joan said she used the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale test and was amazed by what she found. She said "Georgia is two years and nine months, and she is able to answer questions five and six years old can't."

Psychologist Professor Joan Freeman, who tested Georgia, said she thought the toddler could score even better, but needed a nap after 45 minutes of work. Concentrating for that long at that young age is not easy. The minimum accepted score on the Stanford-Binet is 132.

The test uses questions like 'If brother is to boy, then sister is to ...?'. If you take a normal two years old, they cannot hold a pencil, they don't know the colours and they would not be able to answer those simple questions. Lucy said she was impressed at her ability to copy circle. Most two-year-old and even some adults cannot do that but she drew a near perfect one.

Mensa is the largest, oldest, and best-known high-IQ society in the world. The organization restricts its membership to people with high testable IQ. Specifically, potential members must score within the top 2% of any approved standardized intelligence test. Mensa is formally composed of national groups and the umbrella organization Mensa International. Mensa confirmed Georgia was their youngest member at the moment and the youngest female member ever.

Source : BBC News

Back to top