hyperlexia?
Find a Conversation
hyperlexia?
| Mon, 11-28-2005 - 8:34pm |
Those of you who have hyperlexic kids, how did you figure out that's what was going on? My daughter is 39 months, and she seems to be reading a bit, but its hard to decide. We have repeated instances where she would not have known what something was, but there was a label and seems to have read it. (ex....on the plane she was looking at one of those safety fliers and saw doors labeled with ("slide") and she started counting "one slide, two slide,", ect.,) If you ask her what a word is by pointing to it she won't tell you. She'll just ask repeatedly "What is that word?".
Mary

My daughter is exactly the same way. She's not one of those kids who were reading entire books by the time they were 2.5, but she's clearly quite ahead of other kids her age (she'll be 4 at the end of December). Even before we knew there was anything "wrong" it was clear she was precocious when it came to recognizing letters etc. She had taught herself her numbers at 16 months and had taught herself all the letters by 19 months. This past summer she was playing alone in her room and I went in to check on her; she had her magnetic letters out, as well as a book. She had the book opened to a page that read "One took the sun." I looked down at the letter board, and she had spelled "ONE TK" (because there was only one letter "o" in the set). She looked up at me as if to say, "Well? What do you want? You're interrupting me." LOL!!!
At this point she can recognize a lot of words, but she's obviously not sounding them out in a typical way -- she's not using phonics or anything. She basically memorizes the spelling of certain words and can recognize them on sight. So she's nowhere near able to read a whole book, but she's obviously working to teach herself.
Jennifer :)
Oops, I ended my previous post without making the point I was going to make! I'm not too bright early in the morning...
Anyway, what I was going to say is that I think that there are varying degrees of hyperlexia (just like everything else). Your daughter might not have classic hyperlexia, but clearly she's already interested in words, reading, etc. We've found with Sylvie that this interest in reading can be very helpful, even if she's not "really" reading yet. We use lots of lists to help her manage her routine, handle transitions, etc. If we write a list to help her get through her morning routine, for example, and we read the list to her once, she's so fascinated by this act of writing that she memorizes the list immediately -- even though she can't actually read all the words yet. She'll carry the list around with her and "read" each step as she goes through it. She'll even say, "Okay, let's do number three: Sylvie sits on the potty." So if your daughter is showing interest in identifying words, etc. -- to whatever degree -- you can definitely use that to your advantage.
HTH!
Jennifer :)
My David is 8 now, and by the time he was 2.5, it was clear that he was learning to read in a rather atypical way. He never seemed to sound out words; he just read them. He was reading chapter books (like Junie B. Jones) before he ever went to school, and his comprehension was fine. When he was almost 4, he wrote a recipe, and it said, "PUTITINTHEAVNFOR100AWRS", for "Put it in the oven for 100 hours."
Nobody has ever suggested that he's hyperlexic. I read once that hyperlexia is when they learn to read before they learn to talk, but I'm not sure about that. I'm not entirely sure how or if hyperlexia is meant to be a problem. The reading they do in school has always been far too easy for David. He never went through a phase where he needed to practice reading, "Pat has a hat." In fact, in kindergarten, I had him read this thing, and he read it just fine! http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/
According to my mom, I was the same way. As far as I can tell, there are no disadvantages to being a good reader. Maybe I'm missing something?
Evelyn
I don't actually know if there's a problem with it. I'm curious about what's going on with Kivrin now, and as confused as ever. She's always been advanced about letters, numbers, ect., and books have always been her favorite toys. She memorizes them and "reads" to herself late into the night a lot of the time. I had to get rid of her night light because she was taking it to extremes. Now that she seems to be picking up more and more sight words (including odd things like paprika) I wonder if its advanced reading skills or hyperlexia. Just like I wonder what her attraction to older boys is about and whether I should be concerned that she repeats lines from movies constantly.
I just got back from a week long trip with her and dh to visit my family for the holiday. My parents were thoroughly charmed by her and happily convinced that she's gifted and I'm over protective. I'm now exhausted and she has a child psych eval tomorrow that I just can't get worked up about right now.
Sorry, if I made you feel like I was saying there was something wrong with early reading skills. I didn't mean it. I guess I just want to know what the difference between advanced reading, and hyperlexia is...
Mary
Do you know, I don't think there's necessarily a difference between hyperlexia and your run-of-the-mill advanced reading skills... I think that hyperlexia as a term is normally used to describe precocious reading ability ALONG WITH developmental delays in other areas -- so the early reading ability is noticeable because it accompanies marked delays in language acquisition, or autistic-like social delays, or whatever.
Regardless of whether Kivrin gets a dx of ASD or not, the early reading skills are obviously a good thing!!! It's just a matter of figuring out whether they accompany other, more worrisome behaviors...
Jennifer
Hyperlexia is the precocious ability to read without being formally taught prior to the age of 5. They know thier letters by 2 and read by 5. They are often obsessed with letters young and may be obsessed with books and reading too. Comprehension typically lags behind decoding by a great deal.
That last part is the difference between hyperlexia and a gifted reader. A hyperlexic reads the words without really understanding the meaning, at least not to the level they read, while a gifted reader will comprehend better.
Hyperlexics often have autism symptoms. Some say it is separate from autism, but often I have heard that the hyperlexic also has some form of high functioning autism spectrum disorder. That would account for the comprehension troubles.
High functioning autistics do tend to have some really high areas of skills. Often visual skills. They also are able to really focus and obsess on things until they get them. So it would make sense that if they picked up an interest in letters that they could easily obsess on them and learn them early and memorize reading early. Just a thought, but it is fairly common amung HFA types.
Cait was a definite hyperlexic and Mike was awfully close. Cait knew her letters very early but I don't know how early. I think by 18 months from the way she played and behaved, (reading one page with the alphabet over and over for an hour, but didn't yet talk). But it wasn't until she was nearly 2 that I knew for sure she knew her letters and numbers when I caught her labelling them one day. She wouldn't respond when I questioned her either about what they were, but quietly on her own she was definitely doing it.
Then again, around 4 1/2 I was reading her a story when I skipped a word and she called me on it. So I asked her to read and she read the whole book. Until then I had no idea she could read. It was a new book so it wasn't memorized.
Her comprehension has always lagged behind her decoding but around 4th grade her comprehension was basically grade appropriate, so even though her decoding was like 3-4 years higher, it wasn't a big deal. Now in 6th grade it is becoming a bit of an issue when they are expecting more inferencing and summarizing rather than spitting back details, but she is trying really hard.
I don't really consider her a hyperlexic anymore other than the girl could read until her eyes fell out, lol.
Mike is more gifted reader. He too was reading before kindie without being taught, but he was never obsessed with letters or reading. He does like to read sometimes, but it isn't obsession. His decoding is well above his comprehension as well, but he didn't know letters really early and is missing the obsessive component with reading.
Renee
Thank you so much! This really answers some questions for me. I definitely think that Kivrin falls more on the hyperlexic end of things. I'm not even sure she understands that she's "reading" most of the time. She doesn't seem to draw a distinction between a word she knows and a picture of the item. When she wants me to draw a picture of her, or write her name she says the same thing "draw Kivrin". And she's always been obsessed with letters. She knew her letters by the time she was 18 months, and did her alphabet puzzle compulsively around the same time. At a point when my friends children couldn't seem to sit still for a song, Kivrin would sit and do that puzzle over and over for more than an hour. And books are a big thing with her. There is no better toy for her.
Thanks again. We actually have a psych appointment this afternoon. Now I don't feel as confused about what I should be asking in regards to the reading.
Mary
Hi Mary...
My daughter was dx'ed with PDD-NOS at the age of three, and while educating myself on ASD's, I read about Hyperlexia and wondered if it applied in her case. She was facinated by letters/numbers/shapes/colors at an early age (before 2) and could recognize words at three, but was not what I would call "reading" at that point. Around the time she turned four, we suddenly realized that she was indeed reading and now reads quite well (she is nearly five now.) She recognizes 7-8 letter words all the time and my DH and I are constantly amazed by this. Other traits that she has includes great memorization skills, she's great at puzzles, is writing her name and other words, has great computer skills, etc. On the other hand, she is not yet fully potty-trained and does not have age appropriate social or language skills. She has very sensitive hearing, some sensory issues, is extremely strong-willed, and in many ways fits a textbook definition of Hyperlexia. I was also an early, strong reader, my best subjects in school were reading and spelling, and I suspect I had some form of Hyperlexia and possibly Asperger's. She is not as gifted as some children with hyperlexia (I've read about some reading foreign languages at the age of two!) but her other symptoms don't seem to be quite as severe, either. I have found that her special ed. teachers know NOTHING about Hyperlexia. I've read in a few places that children with Hyperlexia usually experience a large improvement in symptoms between the ages of 4 1/2-5, and like clockwork, we've seen a huge leap in her language and social skills just recently.
There is a new book just published last month that I have on order from Amazon.com authored by Audra Jensen that is about Hyperlexia... I've found there is not much information out there about it and have heard that this book is quite good.
Corypd
Mom of Leah, 4.10
I will say that Cait made a HUGE leap in skills right around that 4 1/2 to 5 range. She also met the criteria for Semantic-pragmatic disorder at a young age and they tend to do that too. She is AS as her social skills problems have continued even though the other stuff has improved. There is lots of overlap between hyperlexia, SPD and AS so in her case I believe it is AS and her particular brand of AS include the hyperlexia and SPD symptoms.
Oh, best thing about hyperlexics as they get older; they never have to study for a spelling test. ROFL. Neither of my aspies ever have and have always gotten high scores on them. I still sometimes forget to study spelling words with my NT dd because I am just not used to having to do it.
editted to add what I forgot, lol. I learned around the age of 5 a last layer of mylin (?) is going on the brain and it is common for kids to have a developmental leap at that time. Or at least around there somewhere. Cait was my most dramatically noticable, but I did notice it with the others as well but probably because I was looking for it after her.
Renee
Edited 12/2/2005 9:44 am ET by rbear4