2-Year-Old Prodigy Joins ‘High IQ’ Club Mensa as Youngest Member Ever

At an age most youngsters fight to make it throughout the alphabet, two-year-old British infant Joseph Harris-Birtill can already learn complete books.

He’s now transferring directly to Morse code and the Greek alphabet, in addition to appearing an hobby within the periodic desk of parts.

Recognizing their son’s outstanding skills, oldsters Rose and David reached out to the British department of Mensa for recommendation on nurturing Joseph’s possible.

Not handiest is Mensa now giving the circle of relatives improve, they have welcomed the younger lad into their neighborhood, officially making him the youngest-ever member of the sector’s oldest and biggest high-IQ group at 2 years and 182 days.

Joseph Harris-Birtill (UK) has earned the file for youngest Mensa member (male) at simply 2 years and 182 days outdated https://t.co/atvcaFJLBl

— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 26, 2025

In 2023, Isla McNabb from Kentucky used to be welcomed into Mensa at 2 years and 195 days, after her intelligence used to be estimated to be within the 99th percentile.

To qualify, candidates both want to cross an IQ take a look at or supply enough proof to persuade Mensa’s board they belong within the best 2 % of the inhabitants’s smartest people.

Joseph demonstrated his {qualifications} from an overly early age.

“It soon became clear that he was an exceptional little being – he first rolled over at five weeks, said his first word at seven months, and read his first book out loud from cover to cover at one-and-three-quarter years,” Rose informed Vicki Newman at Guinness World Records.

“By two-and-a-quarter years old he was reading out loud fluently for 10 minutes at a time, could count to 10 in five languages and could count forwards and backwards to well over 100.”

By distinction, maximum newborns lack the motor purposes to construct head and neck keep watch over till round 4 months of age.

Linguistic construction way kids have a tendency to utter their first recognizable phrase at round 12 months. Reading in one language of any type is not usually anticipated till a kid is about 5 or 6 years outdated.

While Joseph’s achievements are abnormal, this doesn’t suggest existence is anticipated to be clean crusing. Education methods are regularly higher resourced to improve scholars who don’t seem to be assembly prescribed requirements than those that are neatly above reasonable.

Anticipating the demanding situations concerned with tailoring their son’s tutorial and developmental wishes, Rose and David contacted UK Mensa for steering.

“I searched online for any further support available, and saw that Mensa offers resources and membership for highly able children,” says Rose.

“We hope that this accomplishment can give him a sense of pride when he is older – it’s a very unusual accolade and the credit is all his!”

True kid prodigies are uncommon, a one-in-5-to-10-million match by way of some estimates, with the abilities contributing to basic intelligence rising from a mixture of genetic and environmental elements.

Whatever head get started Joseph has in his instructional pursuits, it is obvious he has love and improve to proceed exploring the corners of his outstanding mind right through adolescence.