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British boy who taught himself to read aged two joins Mensa
- ggm 4y agoGauss had a very early start in reading and maths. It isn't inherently harmful. That said. Myopia in children is concerning. He needs to be given sufficient time outdoors, focussing on things more distant to infinity. Aside from that, Mensa is just a club, but so is Skull and Bones, as Geraldo found out. Clubs can be good or bad, it depends. Other british child prodigies are on record that their parents fully implemented Philip Larkin's "this be the verse" [0] and recommend a more normal childhood within the limits prodigy-hood permits. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-ver...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rcme 4y agoPlenty of people (billions?) live with myopia.
- clouddrover 4y agoA lot of it is caused by lack of sunlight exposure. A number of Asian countries have epidemic rates of myopia: https://healthland.time.com/2012/05/07/why-up-to-90-of-asian-schoolchildren-are-nearsighted/ https://healthland.time.com/2012/05/07/why-up-to-90-of-asian... https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/05/asia/myopia-east-asia/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/05/asia/myopia-east-asia/ind... The solution is to get children more sunlight hours for proper eye development.
- isaacfrond 4y agoEarly reading correlates strongly to academic success, but the correlation is well below 1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319246387_Early_Readers_and_Academic_Success https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319246387_Early_Rea... The boy is clearly smart, it has to be seen whether he will be the most prolific mathematician the world has ever known (like Gauss).
- ggm 4y agoYes, he might just be the milky bar kid. Coolest pair of specs in the west.
- skcusgnad 4y agoAs Feynman would put it, it's a club where people sit around and try to decide who else is worthy of belonging to the club.
- barrysteve 4y agoElegant poem, thank you!
- Maursault 4y ago> Mensa is just a club Among geniuses, Mensa is for the morons, relatively speaking. It also has the highest annual fees.[1] It's all a machine, partner. Live free, don't join. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-IQ_society https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-IQ_society
- ggm 4y agoNo member of Mensa I have known has remained a friend for long. They all seem obsessed with numerical rank order of precedence and smirk. I have never sought membership. I want nothing to do with them.
- sriram_malhar 4y agoIt isn't just that the 2 year old can read. He taught himself to read! In Mandarin!
- mcv 4y agoUsing a tablet. That part is not actually that unusual. There's lots of educational apps available. And educational videos on Youtube. My oldest son taught himself English as a second language by putting Minecraft on English. Minecraft has excellent language support, and once you know the game well, you already know what everything is in your own language, so setting it to another language is an easy way to learn some words.
- isaacfrond 4y agoHe can count in Mandarin. That's quite a bit different than reading in Mandarin.
- afpx 4y agoMy dad always claims he taught himself to read at age 3, living on some old farm in the middle of nowhere. For whatever reason, I didn't start talking until I was 3, though.
- BizarroLand 4y agoThere is a thing called hyperlexia where young children will teach themselves to read. My dad had it and I did too. It's not a big deal even if it is rare, and it doesn't seem to correlate to life success or intelligence. My dad was good with numbers and above average intelligence, I'm good with numbers and gifted intelligence, but big whoop, no one cares.
- Dowwie 4y agoIs this a case study in why early screen time could be a positive? I assumed that the corrupt garbage for children on youtube and television were enough to forbid screens for the early years in child development. Teddy, however, used a tablet and some unknown apps/videos to learn how to read.
- Llamamoe 4y agoThe real problems with video are that it 1) doesn't require any meaningful use of selective attention, being constantly hyper-engaging with every relevant stimuli presented on a platter, and 2) it doesn't teach them any bidirectional interaction with their environment, during a critical period of brain development meant for exactly that.
- peepee1982 4y agoThat's a great answer that I'll use from now on.
- perfopt 4y agoHmm...how do we know he is not a Transformer?
- soulofmischief 4y agoThis is awesome. How common is it for children to teach themselves to read? I taught myself at age 3 and was reading large novels by age 4, but I have yet to meet anyone else who shares my experience. Sometimes I wonder what opportunities could have been made available for me if anyone had made my future their priority while I was a child. I hope this kid kicks some serious ass.
- acqbu 4y agoIs there any chance this could be considered proof of reincarnation?