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Thursday, May 14, 2009

2-year-old British Genius has IQ of 156

Elise Tan-Roberts of Edmonton in North London is a most unusual 2-year-old with an IQ of 156, rated in the top 0.2 per cent of her age group.

And she's the youngest member of Mensa, the society for genuises.

Elise can name 35 capital cities, identify the three types of triangle, spell her name aloud, read the words "Mummy" and "Daddy" and recite the alphabet.

She was five months old when she spoke her first word, calling her father "Dada." She was walking three months later and running two months after that.

Before her first birthday Elise could recognize her written name and by 16 months she could count to 10. She is now able to do the same in Spanish.

At a playgroup, a mother gave Elise a toy animal and told her it was a rhinoceros. "'That's not a rhinoceros,' Elise said. It's a triceratops."

The little girl was born in London in December 2006 and has heritage in England, Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Elise's mother Louise, 28, said she realized her daughter was different as soon as she was born, The Times of London said. She said Elise took "an unusual" interest in her surroundings.

"She just says things and you have no idea where she got it from. I don't set out to teach her loads of stuff, she just enjoys learning and picks things up. She's always on the go, she never stops."

Elise's father, Edward, a 34-year-old motor consultant, said: "Our main aim is to make sure she keeps learning at an advance pace. We don't want to make her have to dumb down and stop learning just to fit in."