The front door has barely opened before she comes running towards me beaming.'What's this?' she asks, forming fingers and thumbs into a pointy shape and peering through the gap.Before I can answer she declares: 'Equilateral triangle. Three sides the same.'
Of course it is. I should have known. But then I'm not a child genius with a startlingly high IQ.And Elise Tan-Roberts - aged two years, four months and two weeks - is.She has just become the youngest member of Mensa, with an estimated IQ of 156.That puts her two points higher on the scoreboard than Carol Vorderman, and comfortably in the top 0.2 per cent of children
her age.
Here's the best bit, though. She seems to be a sweet little girl with charming parents who simply want her to be happy.Elise was little more than five months when she looked her father Edward in the eyes and called him Dada.She was walking three months later and running two months after that.Before her first birthday she could recognise her written name and by 16 months she could count to ten. Yesterday she did it again - in Spanish.
'What's the capital of Russia?' asks her mother Louise, 28. 'Moscow!' comes the instant reply.Later, at her playgroup, a mother gave her a toy animal and told her it was a rhinoceros.
'That's not a rhinoceros,' said Elise. It's a triceratops.'Other parents convinced Louise and Edward they should have Elise's intelligence assessed.
Inspired by the story of Georgia Brown, who also joined Mensa when she was two, they took her last month to see Professor Joan Freeman, a specialist education psychologist.
After subjecting her to a complex, 45-minute IQ test, she concluded in a written report that Elise was 'more than very bright and capable - she is gifted'.
She was recommended for Mensa and accepted. Only those with an IQ of 148 and above - the top two percent - qualify. The average IQ is 100.Professor Freeman concluded that Elise's 'superb memory' was the source for her 'excellent learning and progress'.
Reassuringly for mum and dad, she added that they were doing everything right.
source
Of course it is. I should have known. But then I'm not a child genius with a startlingly high IQ.And Elise Tan-Roberts - aged two years, four months and two weeks - is.She has just become the youngest member of Mensa, with an estimated IQ of 156.That puts her two points higher on the scoreboard than Carol Vorderman, and comfortably in the top 0.2 per cent of children
her age.
Here's the best bit, though. She seems to be a sweet little girl with charming parents who simply want her to be happy.Elise was little more than five months when she looked her father Edward in the eyes and called him Dada.She was walking three months later and running two months after that.Before her first birthday she could recognise her written name and by 16 months she could count to ten. Yesterday she did it again - in Spanish.
'What's the capital of Russia?' asks her mother Louise, 28. 'Moscow!' comes the instant reply.Later, at her playgroup, a mother gave her a toy animal and told her it was a rhinoceros.
'That's not a rhinoceros,' said Elise. It's a triceratops.'Other parents convinced Louise and Edward they should have Elise's intelligence assessed.
Inspired by the story of Georgia Brown, who also joined Mensa when she was two, they took her last month to see Professor Joan Freeman, a specialist education psychologist.
After subjecting her to a complex, 45-minute IQ test, she concluded in a written report that Elise was 'more than very bright and capable - she is gifted'.
She was recommended for Mensa and accepted. Only those with an IQ of 148 and above - the top two percent - qualify. The average IQ is 100.Professor Freeman concluded that Elise's 'superb memory' was the source for her 'excellent learning and progress'.
Reassuringly for mum and dad, she added that they were doing everything right.
source
