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Up until now, I've not really thought that my son's (now quite obvious) hyperlexia was a problem. He has been absolutely obsessed with letters since the age of around 18 months and it was probably about a year ago now that he started copying words from TV adverts or from out and about. In the last few months his 'vocabulary' of written words has grown extensively and now he 'air writes' words constantly. Today, in the garden while I was weeding I managed to keep him occupied in between him bouncing on the trampoline and going down the slide by spelling out words he asked me to and he 'air wrote' them as I did so. I am of the opinion that his fascination with words is beneficial as even in requesting for words to be spelled out he has to communicate that he wants this! I have seen good progress in his ability to form sentences although at the same time a lot of his language remains echoliac and repetitive. At the same time he has started to find his way around the computer keyboard more expertly than me and has started incorporating all the commands and prompts he sees onscreen into his written 'vocabulary'. For some time, I have thought that I was probably hyperlexic myself but this may not be the case as I did not teach myself to read and initially I had great difficulty with reading as I did with every new subject I was introduced to - described as 'difficulty in grasping new concepts' in my report cards. However, also like in other subjects barring maths, once I 'grasped the concept' I was off and running. I was routinely reading 3 books per night at 5 and by 6 I read upside down and in mirrors. Not long after this I had no trouble speed reading. My son quite often writes his words from right to left and forms his letters from the bottom up. At nursery, they are encouraging him to write left to right, bottom down, although he resists writing differently to the way he wants to. I read in (I think) 'The Complete Guide to Aspergers Syndrome' that it is thought that hyperlexic AS children usually end up doing better academically than non-hyperlexic AS children. This, along with my own experience of being able to find ways to make it through my studies by taping and listening to myself and reading aloud to myself repeatedly to commit the material to memory has meant that I haven't necessarily viewed hyperlexia as a problem but rather as an asset in some ways. It does however appear to be a 'disorder' in itself, perhaps the flip side of the coin to dyslexia with similar associated problems? Is this the reason for instance that I needed to invent my own abbreviated shorthand in lectures (which was really every single word just with most of the vowels missing, lol)? My brother is severely dyslexic as is my niece. What are other people's views on this?