At the age of two, Oscar Wrigley tested off the IQ charts, putting him into Einstein-level territory.
Most kids his age are just learning the names of their favorite cartoon characters. But 2-year-old Oscar Wrigley of Berkshire, England is devouring encyclopedias, history books, and nature guides. When he rides in the car with his parents, he amuses himself by identifying all of the instruments in a classical music recording. Though his body may be small, his brain never rests.
Oscar’s parents knew he was different from an early age: at four months old, he could point to the outfit that he wanted to wear. He began talking at nine months old, and by a year and a half, he could recite the entire alphabet. He began reading soon after, and now knows thousands of words—and is happy to correct others when they don’t get something quite right, as in a recent incident when a neighbor spotted a bird in the Wrigley family’s garden, and asked Oscar, ““Is that a tweet-tweet?”
“No,” the toddler replied. “It’s a blue tit.”
While Oscar’s parents have long known that their son is precocious, they’ve just found out how far above the curve he is: Oscar recently took a IQ test, and got the highest possible score. He was judged to have an IQ of at least 160, putting him in the ranks of Albert Einstein and modern visionaries like Stephen Hawking. He’s been accepted as Britain’s youngest boy to join MENSA, the club for the extremely gifted.
Oscar’s parents are eager to get him enrolled in school two years early, but in the meantime, he’s content to amuse himself reading books, conducting backseat symphonies, and, of course, correcting the neighbors—and possibly soon, his parents.
“I’m fully expecting the day to come when he turns around and tells me I’m an idiot.” Oscar’s father, Joe, told The Daily Mail.