4-Year-Old ‘Multilingual Math Whiz’ Just Became Member of Mensa
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NEED TO KNOW
- A 4-year-old boy from Vernon Hills, Ill., just became one of the youngest people to ever be admitted into Mensa
- The boy, Zorien Royce, reads at a third-grade level and can count in five different languages
- Mensa, an international organization, accepts people with IQs in the top 2% of the general population
A 4-year-old boy from a Chicago suburb just became one of the youngest people ever to be accepted into Mensa.
Zorien Royce of Vernon Hills, Ill., scored 156 out of 160 on the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children when he was just 3 years old, which placed him in the “profoundly gifted” category, per ABC 7 Chicago.
He can currently read at a third-grade level and counts in five different languages. He has also been accepted into Intertel, another prestigious high-IQ society, per the outlet.
“He enjoys soccer and loves reading books. So, most of the time, our goal is to understand what he wants rather than what we want out of him,” Zorien’s mother, Monirupa Ananya, told ABC 7.
In a release obtained by News 5 Chicago, Zorien’s parents additionally said they realized something was different about their son when he picked up “new concepts at lightning speed and retained them effortlessly.”
They went on to explain that they decided to turn to Mensa because they “didn’t want his abilities to go unnoticed or for him to feel out of place.”
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“Their resources, guidance, and community of like–minded families gave us a way to nurture his growing needs, while also keeping him grounded and connected with peers,” they said in the statement.
In an email to PEOPLE, Charles Brown, Director of Marketing and Communications at American Mensa, stated that only 5% of Mensa members are under the age of 12, making them “a special group among our already special group. ”
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He continued, “For that reason, American Mensa provides resources for these children and their parents to help them navigate a world that often isn’t set up for gifted children and their unique needs and challenges.”
“One of those challenges — one that Naqib and Monirupa, Zorien’s parents, overcame — is actually identifying their child as gifted and then seeking a path to nurturing those gifts,” he added.
Mensa America recently shared a post about Zorien’s achievement on Instagram, calling him “a multilingual math whiz.” They went on to say that Zorien is “proving that curiosity knows no age limits.”
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“Here’s to brilliant kids who remind us that learning is an adventure!” they added.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
