Heidi Hankins has become one of the society’s youngest members after her intellect was measured at 59 points above the average child’s, and only one point below Stephen Hawking.
‘We always thought Heidi was pretty bright because she was reading early,’ said her father, Matthew, 46.
‘I got her the complete set of the Oxford Reading Tree books when she was two and she read through the whole 30 in about an hour. It’s what you would expect a seven-year-old to do.’
University lecturer Mr Hankins and wife Sophy, 42, tested Heidi and sent the results to Mensa after nursery staff said they had no activities to challenge her.
‘I specialise in measuring IQs in children, and I was curious about her and the results were off the scale,’ added Mr Hankins of Winchester, Hampshire.
‘The thing is she is not precocious, she is just a little girl who likes her Barbies and Lego but then you will find her sitting down and reading a book.’
Although she is yet to start school, Heidi can already do addition and subtraction, write in clear sentences and could count to 40 when she was just two.
Mensa’s youngest ever member, Elise Tan Roberts, from Edmonton, north London, was two when she joined in 2009.
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