Genius toddler sets world record — becomes youngest female Mensa member
A Kentucky toddler — who started reading at age 2 — has become the youngest female Mensa member, earning her a place in the Guinness World Records.
Isla McNabb gained her spot in non-profit society Mensa International — which is open for people who score in the 98th percentile or higher on standardized IQ tests — after scoring in the 99th percentile for her age on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, according to an announcement by the Guinness World Record Monday.
The genius child — who is now three — began showing her potential from the moment her parents brought her home from the hospital as she was able to be highly focused.
The child prodigy learned colors, numbers and the alphabet by age one and at just seven months could already “pick out certain items from picture books when asked,” her dad Jason McNabb told Guinness.
And when her dad spelled the word “red” on an erasable writing tablet Isla got from her aunt on her second birthday, she shocked her parents by reading the word out, Jason said.
The father then wrote “blue,” “yellow,” “cat,” and “dog” — all of which the girl was easily able to read.
The parents also found laying around the house toy letters spelling out objects they were placed near — such as finding C-H-A-I-R spelled next to a chair, S-O-F-A laid out by the couch and C-A-T placed near their pet feline Booger.
So mom Amanda suggested their daughter get tested and by 2-and-a-half she secured her spot in the prestigious and oldest high IQ society in the world.
“The biggest benefit to Mensa is the community,” Jason said, explaining that they have been able to get advice from other parents with gifted children about the best resources to keep their kids challenged.
The testing looked at “memory and reasoning kids of that age,” Dr. Edward Amend, a child psychologist in Kentucky who specializes in working with gifted children, told The Post.
“There will be vocabulary-type items: Can you identify these items? Do you know what this is? Do you know what that is?”
A verbal component would feature questions such as “Can you tell me what this is? Can you describe this? can you tell me how this or that are alike?” Amend added.
“On the non-verbal side, it’s more problem solving, identifying patterns and different matrices, being able to take pieces and form a whole.”
The doctor explained that the questions start off easy and get harder until the child can no longer continue correctly answering the questions
While Isla is now in pre-school, her parents are trying to get her an individualized education program so she can start kindergarten early.
“Isla thinks she is on par with adults, and it can be challenging,” said Jason.
“She never settles for ‘because I said so,'” the dad said.
He added that while they were able to spell things out when they needed to keep things from their other kids, that trick doesn’t work with Isla.
“If I ask her mother ‘Hey, should we get an I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M’, Isla will perk up and yell ‘ice cream!’” Jason explained.
The bright girl continues to surprise her parents with her knowledge — including showing Jason and Amanda American Sign Language.
And the parents frequently don’t know where Isla picks up the things she knows, Jason said.
“She often mispronounces words that we can only assume she learned by reading,” said Jason, giving an example of the child pronouncing germ with a hard G.
While Isla is strong in many subjects and takes pride in learning she is especially good at math and reading.
Jason says he was delighted to see Isla make it onto the Guinness World Records and was looking forward to seeing what opportunities lay ahead of her.
“She has achieved quite a lot in her three years,” Jason said. “I can’t wait to see what her future holds.”
