Isla McNabb’s ability to read back words written on an erasable tablet led her parents to contact Guinness World Records

Isla McNabb’s ability to read back words written on an erasable tablet led her parents to contact Guinness World Records

Reading words aloud that adults scribble on an erasable tablet may not be the way many children spend their second birthdays. But it’s how Isla McNabb celebrated turning two, and it put the native of Crestwood, Kentucky, on the path to become the youngest ever female member of Mensa, the world’s oldest high IQ society, her parents said in a recent interview.

In a conversation published on Monday, Isla’s parents, Jason and Amanda McNabb, told the Guinness World Records website that they realized their daughter’s intelligence should be assessed after an aunt gave her an erasable writing tablet as a second birthday present.

  • Sylver@lemmy.world
    54·
    11 months ago

    How do you know if someone is a part of Mensa?

    Don’t worry, they’ll let you know. Repeatedly.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
    381·
    11 months ago

    “The biggest benefit to Mensa is the community,” Jason McNabb said to Guinness.

    The biggest drawback of Mensa is the community.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
    323·
    11 months ago

    IQ is relative to age, a 100 is standard for your age. The minimum to join mensa is 132… but that would mean she has the standard intelligence of a ~3-year-old. That’s good for a 2 year old but not exactly what you’d think of when you think about how smart Mensa members are.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
      121·
      11 months ago

      She can spell at 2 and a half and do math. That’s a bit better than most 3 and 4 year olds.

    • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      11 months ago

      I thought you said her podcast, as in the kid in the story and was like, damn she’s so smart she’s already doing tell all about Mensa…

  • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de
    192·
    11 months ago

    Hm. I could read at like 2 and a half years. I could even read text rotated upside down (though I’m not sure it was at that age but it was when I was in daycare) and I have a couple funny stories involving that.

    However I would now consider myself a fairly averagely intelligent guy compared to the other people in my CS classes. Much can change in that time.

    So to best support Isla, the McNabbs enrolled Isla in Mensa, hoping to connect with other similarly situated parents who could share some information with them.

    If they think it helps, I suppose. Still feels to me like this could easily go wrong and be a good way to drive the kid to burnout because of the expectations. But maybe I just have a bias against Mensa, because all talk about them that I hear seems to be negative. The media attention certainly doesn’t help in any case.

    • WeeSheep@lemmy.world
      5·
      11 months ago

      I met someone while I was in university who started in mansa as a young kid. Very proud of it, told everyone often. Once told me he discovered pockets and how proud he was of himself. Informed me red trucks always drive dangerously; no other color, no other car, but he saw a red truck drive dangerously once and joining mensa is all about pattern recognition. I’m not sure he knew what the word “pattern” means. Told me he had to argue with his teachers that he deserves a better grade on a project he cheated on because he couldn’t finish it by himself, but he got the better grade in the end because he deserves it and he is smart. I feel like he is a decent representative of mensa community.