Two-Year-Old Becomes Mensa Member

A two-year-old girl who can name 35 capital cities has become the youngest member to join high IQ society, Mensa.

Elise Tan Roberts, from Edmonton, north London, has an IQ of 156 and can recite the English alphabet, count to 10 in Spanish and name types of triangle.

Elise took the standard Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale test which showed she was in the top 0.2% in her age group in the UK.

Mensa has described the girl as an "exceptional child".

'Interesting challenge'

Ben Woods, who became a Mensa member in the 1990s at the age of two years and nine months old, was the youngest member in the society before Elise, who is two years and four months old.

In 2007, Georgia Brown, from Aldershot, Hampshire, became the youngest female member, at six days older than Ben Woods. She scored 152 in an IQ test.

Elise can also spell her name aloud and read the words mummy and daddy.

Child psychologist Professor Joan Freeman tested the toddler.

Mensa chief executive John Stevenage said: "Elise's parents correctly identified that she is an exceptional child. They now realise they have an interesting challenge on their hands as she grows up.

"We wish them well and look forward to seeing Elise develop in the coming years."

Mensa has about 24,000 members in the UK and Ireland and counts presenter Carol Vorderman, whose IQ is 154, DJ and TV presenter Sir Jimmy Savile and inventor Sir Clive Sinclair among its members.

from http://news.bbc.co.uk