Intelligent Design: Oregon 3-Year-Old with 151 IQ Painting for Charity on his Birthday

Lawson Lundberg turns 4 on Friday, July 2, and he is trading his paintings of Oregon and Washington or any other state of your choosing for donations to March of Dimes. The nonprofit helped him as a premature infant. Thought to originally have special needs and delayed speech, the boy recently tested into the 99th percentile for IQ and became a member of American Mensa.

By Tom Peterson

Sara Lundberg said her son had speech delay and they thought it could be due to his premature birth - five weeks early. Delays like this could mean special needs education in the future, she was told.

But then this happened in August of 2019. 

She and her son Lawson rolled up to a stop sign.

“Octagon, red, stop,” 2-year-old Lawson said from his car seat. 

“I looked back at him and said, ‘what is that?’ I never taught him that. He absorbed it somewhere. There were a lot of wows when we were figuring this all out.”

Sara said Lawson began spelling at around the same time. He knew his alphabet. He knew colors by name. He could read small words. 

Then last Valentine’s Day, an ice storm hit, and the Lundberg family was stuck in their home for nine days. Sara and husband Eric have four young children, and it takes a lot to keep everybody occupied. 

“We gave him a toy globe and told him some continents. He knew what they were without us having to tell him again. He loves geography. He knows every country. He knows what shape they are and what they are next to. He knows the capitals and the currencies of every country. We have seven globes now.”

Sara called her son over to the phone last week during our interview.

Hey Lawson, what is the currency in Brazil,” she asked. 

“Brazillian Real,” he said in his three-year-old voice.

Back on May 25, Sara and Eric took Lawson to a psychologist for the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence test.

They were stunned by the scores. His verbal comprehension, visual spatial and working memory scores revealed a full scale IQ of 151.

That’s Einstein level -  99.9th percentile.

Lundberg said it is a major undertaking to keep Lawson challenged. “He is like a train out of control when it comes to his appetite for knowledge. We need to homeschool him. We have to find enrichment. Because of his love for geography, we’re taking him to Crater Lake in the near future.”

CCCNews recently confirmed that Lawson was given membership into Mensa. And Lundberg provided corroborating evidence of Lawson’s IQ scores.

“I can confirm that Lawson Lundberg is a member of American Mensa, yes,” said Charles Brown, director of marketing at American Mensa, with headquarters in Hurst, Texas. 

Mensa Marketing Director Charles Brown

American Mensa is a high-IQ organization that tries to connect smart people for intellectual and social purposes, he said.  Mensa is a place where our members fit in, no matter their age. The one trait binding Mensa members is high intelligence. Specifically, members have scored in the top two percent on a standardized intelligence test, said Brown.

Sara and Eric have been teaching Lawson about money recently, telling him about earning money for chores. “We talked about saving some, spending some and giving some to charity,” she said. 

“He wanted to earn money, and he also wanted to know more about charity,” she said. “He really dove into that.”

Lawson’s birthday is on Friday, July 2. “Instead of wanting all these birthday presents, he wants to donate to March of Dimes,” Sara Lundberg said. 

March of Dimes helped pay for some of Lawson’s medical bills when he and his twin sister Gwendolyn were born prematurely.

“He loves geography, and he loves to paint. He has an incredible memory. He can look at a geographic region, and he retains it and can paint it right from memory.”

CCCNews asked if Lawson could paint the city limits of The Dalles, Oregon. 

No problem.

Lawson Lundber with his rendition of The Dalles city limits.

Image Lawson used to paint The Dalles city limits.

Sara Lundberg is now using Facebook to run a fundraiser on the West Linn Community Group. Lawson paints any state or country shape by memory for donation. 100% of proceeds are being donated to March of Dimes. He says he wants to paint enough to make a difference, Sara said.

“People can find the post about the sale and message me through Facebook messenger,” she said. “They can either Venmo the donation or pay the donation in cash when we drop off the painting to their door.”

“We’re super-duper blessed,” Sara said, noting she will soon be having her fifth child in 48 months. “That’s another whole story on its own,” she said laughing. 

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More than 380,000 babies are born preterm each year, according to the March of Dimes website. Your donations help by funding lifesaving research and providing support to families when they need it most.

Concentrating with a difficult grip, Lawson Lundberg brings The Dalles to life.

Twin sister Gwendolyn, Lawson and his younger siblings