2-Year-Old With IQ of 146 Becomes Youngest American Mensa Member
Written by SOURCE on May 27, 2021
A California toddler with an IQ of 146 has become the youngest member of American Mensa after scoring in the top two percent of the U.S. population, well above the average American IQ of 98, People reports.
Two-year-old Kashe Quest’s exceptional intelligence includes being able to count to 100, pick out all 50 states based on their shape and location, and identify elements on the periodic table by their symbols. Quest is also learning to read English and speak in Spanish, but she already knows 50 sign language gestures.
“Kashe is certainly a remarkable addition to American Mensa,” Trevor Mitchell, the executive director of American Mensa, told People via a statement. “We are proud to have her and to be able to help her and her parents with the unique challenges that gifted youth encounter.”
Kashe’s mother Sukhjit Athwal recalled realizing that something was special by the way she was able to quickly pick up material. “We started to notice her memory was really great. She just picked up things really fast and she was really interested in learning. At about 17, 18 months, she had recognized all the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes,” Athwal told Fox’s Los Angeles affiliate KTTV.
Regardless of how fast Kashe progresses in her learning, Athwal realizes that her daughter is only two years old, and doesn’t want to take away moments where she can enjoy being a toddler. “I think one of the biggest things with me and [my] daughter [is] making sure she has a childhood and we don’t force anything on her,” she said. “We’re kind of going at her pace and we want to just make sure that she is youthful for as long as she can be.”
“At the end of the day, she’s in that toddler stage. So she very much is still a normal two-year-old where we have negotiations, we have tantrums, we have everything and it’s different because the way we communicate with her, it has to be different because she’s able to understand just a little bit more,” Athwal also said.
The Stanford-Binet test notes that anyone who scores between 145 and 160 is seen as “genius or near genius,” while the Cattell test considers the top 2 percent range to be between 132 and 148.
