Isla McNabb, a two-year-old girl from Crestwood, Kentucky, USA, stunned everyone with her extraordinary abilities after becoming the youngest female member of Mensa.
For the uninitiated, Mensa International is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation that accepts members with an IQ test score of the 98th percentile or above.
Isla became a member of Mensa after scoring in the 99th percentile of intelligence for her age on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales. Isla’s parents saw that she exhibited acute focus. She began learning her colours, numbers, and alphabet when she was just one year old, reports Guinness World Records (GWR).
“At seven months of age, she would pick out certain items from picture books when asked. At 18 months, she learned the alphabet on her own and began to read at two years old,” Isla’s father, Jason McNabb, told GWR.
When McNabb received an erasable writing tablet from her aunt Crystal for her second birthday, the young girl surprised everyone by being able to read the word ‘red’ that Jason had written on it. Her father also wrote ‘blue,’ ‘yellow,’ ‘cat,’ and ‘dog,’ which Isla read aloud without any hesitation.
That’s when her parents decided to get Isla tested. As she approached two-and-a-half, she scored in the top 1% of the population, qualifying her for a Mensa membership.
Jason McNabb told GWR, “A psychologist that tested Isla specialises in gifted children. He states he doesn’t usually test children as young as two but made an exception after hearing about her talents.”
Isla is presently enrolled in preschool at the age of three. To allow her to start kindergarten early, her parents hope to obtain an individualised education plan. Isla loves to study, and while she is above average in several subjects, she excels in reading and arithmetic. She never stops surprising her parents with all the new information she learns.
