2-Year-Old Kentucky Girl is Mensa's Newest and Youngest Member

IQ Test MENSA Genius Kentucky girl

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Jul 09, 12:16 am

Isla McNabb, a 2-year-old Kentucky girl, is the newest and youngest member of Mensa, the organization for the world's most intelligent people.

Amanda and Jason McNabb, the proud parents, discovered Isla's unique abilities early on, with the latter describing his daughter as having an affinity for the alphabet. She would sound them out, so they enhanced that, and by age 2, she was already reading like a Kindergarten.

She had also started spelling out objects in their home.

The parents said they would find letters forming the word S-O-F-A beside their couch and on other objects. She had even spelled out Booger, the name of Isla's cat.

The McNabbs told The Washington Post they decided to let Isla take an IQ test - Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales. She scored in the top 1 percent of the population, which more than qualifies her for Mensa, as one must score in the top 2 percent of the general population on one of more than 200 standardized intelligence tests to qualify.

Wise beyond her years

Amanda, Isla's mother, sought a psychologist who administered the IQ test. Isla would not have been allowed to take the test since children under four years old are not usually tested. However, the psychologist made an exception as he was intrigued by Amanda's claims.

Isla cannot only read but can also write, count forward and backward, and do simple math, which includes subtraction.

Nevertheless, her parents say she is still an average toddler in many ways as she still likes to watch pre-K shows like "Bluey" and "Blippi" and still enjoys playing with her friends at pre-school and her cat Booger.

"She can read well beyond her little years but we're still working on potty training," Jason told KSBY.

"So she's still an average 2-year-old on that," he added.

Astonishing Achievement and Performance of a 2-Year-Old

Charles Brown, American Mensa spokesperson, said they only have three members younger than four and one younger than six out of 50,000.

Isla's results were rated by The Washington Post as superior in all categories.

Her parents hope that Isla can have some friends and go to conventions as they have scholarships offered, and it would be a great opportunity for Isla.

But for now, they just want their little girl to be a kid and enjoy things in life as a kid, LocalI2 reported.

The McNabbs continued teaching Isla new words, and she almost always could phonetically sound out the letters. When she began showing her skills, they kept a list that started with 100 words and quickly grew to 200. They stopped counting at 500.