Three-year-old becomes Britain's youngest Mensa member

A toddler has become Britain's youngest Mensa member after smashing an IQ test and shocking his parents.

Teddy Hobbs from Portishead, Somerset can read fluently and count to 100 in seven different languages, including Mandarin, French, German, Spanish, and Welsh.

The youngster has little to no interest in games and TV, and tends to prefer kicking back with a relaxing word search.

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Little Teddy was admitted to Mensa late last year after smashing an IQ test with the group - scoring 139 out of 160 on the Stanford Binet test.

Beth Hobbs, 31 and her husband Will, 41, say they had never expected Teddy to get into the group, and never planned to even apply for membership.

"We were told that three was the youngest age of anyone they had accepted into Mensa in the UK, though there was someone in the US aged two," said Beth.

"To be honest it's a total fluke really that he got in. We never aimed to get him in, and even when we had him assessed, that was so that we could help him when he starts school in September - we never planned on getting him in to Mensa."

In case you're unfamiliar, Mensa is a society of people with particularly high IQs, and requires a minimum score of 132 to be considered.

She continued: "We did an IQ test, where we basically told him that he was going to sit and do some puzzles with a lady for an hour, and he thought it was the most wonderful thing," Beth explained.

"After he completed it we were told he was eligible by Mensa's child advisor - so we thought he may as well join."

Beth and Will aren't quite sure how their little boy ended up being so gifted, and often joke that the embryologist must have slipped a needle to make him this way.

Teddy and his younger sister were IVF babies.

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Despite their shock, Teddy's parents believe that Mensa membership could be the best thing for him, since he's already outgrowing his school lessons.

That being said, Teddy's genius does come with some pitfalls.

She added: "My friends can say 'oh should we have some c-a-k-e' and their kids will not know what they're saying, but Teddy will immediately spell it out and want some.

"You can't get anything past him, he listens to everything. He will remember conversations you had with him at Christmas last year.

"His idea of fun is that he likes to sit down and recite his times tables, and he even got so excited over fractions one time that he gave himself a nosebleed."

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The parents say that they are trying to keep Teddy 'humble' given his genius to prevent him from developing any kind of 'superiority complex'.

Beth said: "He is beginning to notice though. He'll look at some friends struggling to read and sort of be a bit like 'how come they can't do that' when he can - we're just trying to make sure he doesn't develop a superiority complex around it."

For now, the priority for Teddy's parents is getting his social and development skills up to scratch.

Beth said: "We spent a lot of time trying to have these children - so they need to be good citizens."