Elise Tan-Roberts now nine years became the youngest member of Mensa, with an estimated IQ of 156 which puts her two points higher on the scoreboard and comfortably in the top 0.2 per cent of children her age.
She 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 recognize her written
name and by 16 months she could count to ten. But it seems to have taken Louise and Edward, from North
London, as much by surprise as anyone else. Until she started to communicate,
all they noticed was a tendency for her to stare at things and at people, as if
soaking up information.
Her parents Louise and Edward were convinced to have her 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'.
Edward her father, a 34-year-old motor consultant and car-buyer, said: 'Our
main aim is to make sure she keeps learning at an advanced pace. 'We don't want to make her have to dumb down and stop
learning just to fit in. But she's still my baby. I just want her to be happy
and enjoy herself.'
Elise was born in London in December 2006 and can boast influences
from England, Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sierra Leone in her background. There are doctors and lawyers in the couple's extended
family but none was a child genius, as far as anyone knows.
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