As a member of Mensa, Ryan Joseph is a certified genius. But what’s truly impressive is that he became a member when he was just four years old. He’s now seven and a half, and his parents are already thinking about college.
If that doesn’t pique your curiosity, nothing will. So read on to learn the story of Ryan Joseph, one of the smartest kids in the world.
The Birth of a Genius
From the moment he opened his eyes, people were taking notice that Ryan was special. As his proud parents were taking him home from the hospital, a nurse pointed out that Ryan was abnormally observant and aware. Of course, every parent wants to hear their child is special, but they believed the nurse was just being nice. But as they soon found out, the nurse’s remarks were actually quite the understatement.
Before Ryan learned to speak, his father noticed that something was off with his infant son but couldn’t put his finger on it. What he didn’t realize at the time was that Ryan was silently at war with himself, frustrated that he couldn’t verbally express all the thoughts that spun around in his mind.
Mastering Communication
But this frustration didn’t last long. Ryan was flipping through Green Eggs and Ham at just three and a half, and he was soon peppering his parents with endless questions, challenging them in unprecedented ways. After all, kids his age were supposed to ask for chocolate milk with dinner, not make philosophical queries about human behavior.
At four, Ryan was accepted to Mensa, his IQ coming in at the 99.7th percentile. He’s one of the youngest to be accepted into the organization, with most of his peers decades older.
Although he’s now just seven and a half, his parents feel they’re talking to a teenager sometimes — and not the brooding, sullen kind. His advanced comprehension and mature thought processes make it hard to keep up with him sometimes as he takes in vast amounts of information and synthesizes it in the blink of an eye.
Nurturing a Young Mind
Many parents don’t know what to do with an obviously gifted child. They might enroll them in advanced classes at school, but that’s about the extent of it.
Ryan’s parents take the opposite approach, doing whatever they can to stimulate their child’s mind. They kept pushing him farther ahead in school until he started to actually be challenged, intentionally giving him an environment where his mind is engaged instead of bored. He’s three years ahead in school right now and loving it. During the summer, he participates in gifted student programs sponsored by prestigious universities. By making things harder for him, Ryan’s parents have set him up for long-term success.
At home, they supplement his learning with engaging YouTube videos that discuss advanced topics like chaos theory, hovercraft technology, and how does anesthia work.. They give him logic puzzles and strategy games. They supply him with all the LEGOs a kid could ever want, allowing him to construct replicas of the Eiffel Tower when he’s not debating that nsome infienities are bigger than others.
While it’s not always easy to figure out exactly what Ryan needs at any given time for optimal growth, they’re doing the best they can and are rewarded for it, seeing his growth continue at an exponential rate.
The Challenges of Raising an Einstein
Raising a genius is not without its challenges.
For example, Ryan can get frustrated when he can’t immediately master something. This is especially apparent in kinesthetic learning like riding a bike. He could watch someone do it and understand the theory behind it, but he lacked the natural muscle memory required for it to feel natural.
Difficulties also arise when getting other people on board with his accelerated learning. His parents had a not insignificant amount of difficulty with school administrators who were hesitant to allow Ryan to skip so many grades. While naysayers like these are invariably proved wrong in the end, it’s often an arduous, uphill battle.
But what came as a pleasant surprise was that Ryan has no difficulty being a social butterfly. While many people think of a genius as a reticent, isolated individual, Ryan loves to be around his classmates and makes friends very easily. He prefers the company of his peers, rather than kids his own age, but he effortlessly talks with them and learns from them (and vice versa) with no hesitation.
The same goes for sports. Rather than shutting himself in his room with his books, he loves going outside and engaging in physical activities. Recently, he started playing lacrosse, a notoriously physical sport that rewards playing tough.
As a result, you’d probably never think there’s anything different about Ryan. That is, until he opens his mouth, at which point his brilliance and precociousness become abundantly clear.
A Promising Future
Ryan’s parents don’t pretend to know what’s in store for their gifted child; they just know that it will be extraordinary. They dream of him graduating high school at fifteen and leaving the nest to do incredible things, but that doesn’t mean they don’t treasure every moment with their young genius. Until he steps out on his own, they’ll do everything they can to nurture Ryan and give him all the tools he needs to express his gift in increasingly wonderful ways.
