Hyperlexia

[Lyndalou]

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?

[Mandapanda]

Hi

 

I don't know that my eldest is hyperlexic, but he has always been brilliant with shapes, which letters are after all. He's always loved words and word humour. His Grandma used to call him names like rapscallion and flibbertigibbet and he would laugh his head off! He struggled with English at school, it's the writing down he struggles with. He's now 18, learning Japanese, and going on to University to study English Language and Linguistics and Russian!

 

Being good with words and language can only be good because it means you can read and learn about anything you want to.

[Sally44]

My son does not have hyperlexia. He is severely dyslexic. But he is also echolalic and can repeat hours of dialogue from films or TV.

 

He area of ability seems to be in design. And as you could read upside down and mirror image - that seems to be part of his dyslexic problem because he writes upside down, back to front, mirror image - but is also part of his design ability because he can design from all angles and start from any point and read instructions upside down etc.

 

I think that if your son has hyperlexia and comprehension of what he is reading/writing then he will be up and away. The fact that he can air write shows that he can spell as well as read. His poor letter formation maybe a problem for him as it is harder to correct wrong formulation than start from scratch.

 

It also sounds like you had either poor comprehension or poor short term/working memory to have to repeat things and record things etc. My son also has the same difficulties. But I don't know if that is separate to or part of any other disorder. When he was assessed by an EP all his cognitive scores came back at average or above, apart from working memory which was very poor and classed as a specific learning difficulty [if all his scores at been at the same level he would have been MLD].

 

Problems holding and manipulating information in short term memory can have a huge impact on learning and is also very tiring. But that was you, and you dont know if your son will be similar or different.

 

The main thing I think is important is that he enjoys learning/reading/writing etc.

 

There is an ad I see on TV often called "my baby can read", and this seems to tap into the young toddlers ability to learn whole words. But at some point in development children stop learning whole words and move onto the individual letters and letter sounds. If your son is also mastering this technique and not still using whole words, then that is very good. But whether comprehension and inference and imagination is at the same level is another question. What you don't want is for nursery/school to assume his comprehension and understanding is at the same level as his reading ability.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Sally44

[Lyndalou]

Thanks Sally and Manda panda

 

Wow Manda - All the best to your son at University! Japanese? What a difficult language. I would be so happy if my son turned out to be good with other languages - he's playing games on the CBeebies website at the moment, 'The Lingo Show' being one of them which is a BBC children's programme introducing young children to other languages so you never know!!

 

Sally, you are right. It is so difficult to gauge the levels of ability and understanding my son has in different areas and I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that his mind works like mine. I know there are a number of similarities between us but I am starting to see parallels with how my brother was when he was growing up and I actually find this quite difficult as my brother and I don't get on very well these days. I can attribute much of the way my brother is now to his difficulties with his dyslexia, and when he was at Primary school the huge fight my mum had getting any of the teachers to take her seriously when she had researched this 'new fangled' learning difficulty and knew her son had it. The attitude of certain teachers in those days was pretty shoddy and one teacher in particular said to my parents' faces that their son was a 'waste of time'. I know he had a tough time at school and kids in those days who were put in 'remedial' class were looked down on and classed as stupid. I think in my brother's case, he bought into this and got used to my parents bailing him out of debt and smoothing over his mistakes, even now as a father of 3 (technically 5).

 

Ultimately, I can see how hyperlexia benefited me as opposed to how dyslexia hampered my brother so since my son has a moderate to severe speech disorder I can't help but be pleased that he has a fascination for something so constructive and a skill to build on, something that aids his communication in many ways. I think there probably is some connection with 'design' in a broad sense, shapes as Manda says and Sally's sons ability to look at things from all angles. I think that that can only be a good thing and I see an extension now to my son's letter writing now as he is starting to draw quite precise images of houses and words in boxes. He also is 'inventing' fonts - not just humdrum letters for my son , lol! Unfortunately, he is getting quite irate when those pictures or words are not precise enough!

 

I've got a meeting with my son's nursery teacher tomorrow. It will be to discuss among other things what the composition of his Primary 1 class will be and a review of his progress in general. I am told he has an IEP although I've only ever seen a very informal rundown of the targets set for him, agreed with my input. It will be interesting to see what the teacher's thoughts are on his working memory and comprehension. A few months ago I know that the SALT thought that he could only pick out two key words in a sentence so I will want to know if they think this has changed at all.

 

Thanks

 

Lynda

[darkshine]

I only heard this term for the first time a few months ago, I was interested in letters from around the same age as your son, and was starting to read things by 2 and never really looked back from there - I don't think I have hyperlexia though... (even if I did have I wouldn't want other labels lol). My reading levels were always ahead until I got to about 16 and then there were more kids that caught up - I did about average academically - but it wasn't word ability that reduced my grades it was a million other things - god knows what I would have got otherwise!!!

[Lyndalou]

Well, in the last few weeks it's become clear that my son has started to read sentences and without having seen them before! We went along to the shop earlier and my son stopped me, pointed at a sign close to the door and read 'Thank you - see you again soon!' and I was quite taken aback. He also spent some of this morning drawing animals and writing the name of the animal alongside with his dad supervising him - he really loved doing this and he saw it as a bit of a game. Can't help but be very proud of my little man