The little brainbox who counts to ten in four languages
MOST toddlers are very good at belly-aching for sweets and dragging their feet on a supermarket trip.
Michael McBride, however, is more of a help than a hindrance to his mother – making sure she gets the right change at the checkout.
The three-year- old spends his time calculating the cost of groceries as he marches around the aisles adding up the weekly food basket.
Not that his talents stop there. While most children of his age can only count to five, he has taught himself how to count to ten in four languages – English, Spanish, Russian and Japanese – and learnt his 14 times table.
In fact he has an IQ of 145 and is already close to qualifying for Mensa.
Tests found he had a reading and spelling age of eight and one expert was amazed at how he could converse like an adult. Michael has never had any formal tutoring and instead started to teach himself numbers and words on his mother’s iPad.
He quickly learnt how to read eightletter words and now corrects mother Emma, 39, if she misreads his bedtime story book. Yet his family say he also loves riding his bike and splashing in puddles like any other young boy. Motherof-two Emma, a postal worker from Yate, Bristol, said: ‘We don’t push him because we are content to let him be himself – but he just teaches himself.
‘He is quite fascinated by numbers, and also loves big words. His English is very good, but he is like a sponge and his retention is brilliant.’
Emma and husband Anthony, 33, a chef, first noticed Michael’s talent when he was 18 months old and started to learn from educational games on the iPad. But soon he was asking questions his family couldn’t answer.
Michael’s grandmother Jenny Greenwood took him to a specialist in Birmingham and tests found he had a reading and spelling age of eight – and an IQ of 145. The UK average is 104. She said: ‘In the last few weeks he has been obsessed with the planets, learning all the names and where they are.’
Michael’s parents have not submitted him for Mensa membership because they feel he is too young, although the youngest- ever member was j ust two-and-a-half.
Membership of the society is reserved for those with an IQ in the top 2 per cent of the population, around 148.
Dr Peter Congdon, who performed intelligence tests on Michael, said he was ‘in the very superior range’ and should jump a year at school so he is not held back.