Hyperlexia or just a good reader?

[SpinningTops]

I wonder whether my son's reading skill could be hyperlexia or just that he's a good reader?
He is on the waiting list for an autism assessment so could be part of that.

He has always loved letters. Phonics songs were one of his favourite things when he was younger. At about 3 he could read things like 'The dog dug up a flag' fairly easily. Now he's a free reader in Y1 and can read almost anything.

The thing that makes me wonder is that he's never really read phonetically, he reads by word recognition and once he's seen a word it is banked and remembered forever more.

His comprehension is reasonable which I think makes it more likely to just be good at reading? He's generally a bright, curious, fact loving boy.

This is just because I'm curious 😊

I was like this. Read before playschool. Aged 11 there was a national test applied to primary pupils. It was a kind of knockout thing with a reading paragraph and then spellings. If you got something wrong you got knocked out. I didn’t make a mistake the whole way through. I think the tester was surprised. Hasn’t really made a difference in my life since though. I’m still a reader and have worked as an editor and proofreader. I’m not neurodivergent as far as I know.

What level is gree reader? This differs massively from school to school. If around Lime level in Y1, that is very very good but far from unheard of.

My DS was like this. He read books like James and the Giant Peach before he started school. He learned from watching alphablocks and then taught himself.
If his comprehension is good then he is just a good reader probably not hyperlexic. I would ask him questions that test his inference abilities like 'what do you think they will do next?' Or 'how do you think she is feeling?' These are the types of questions that come up in reading tests that can trip up ND children.

My daughter sounds exactly like your son. Shes also in y1 and whilst still on ORT level 5 at school (as they won’t move anyone higher than this 🙄) at home she is reading chapter books like roald Dahl and the worst witch with good comprehension, so should probably be a ‘free reader’ too. However she was taught phonics from 3 and that is mostly how she has learned, though she definitely remembers wild words easily too . I also have some suspicions about autism. I don’t what the difference between hyperlexia and good reading is though?

I'm sure hperexia just means word recognition with no understanding of the meaning.

Op if you are asking him questions about the story and what words have given us the clue to the character etc he is probably a good reader.

Many of us are excellent sight readers and don't like or need phonics. Our brain sorts it out in its own way.

What is his comprehension like? Hyperlexia usually means they can read extremely well and quickly but aren’t actually able to comprehend it. If his comprehension is good it’s likely he’s just a very good, strong reader!

DD was like this, she listened to a jolly phonics songs cd age 3 and just picked it up immediately. Reading the biff and chip books before she started school. In reception they still went through it all as if she was completely new to phonics but then they saw her reading The Magic Far Away Tree out loud. They did an analysis and her comprehension was pretty good, as well as just being able to read the words. Her teachers never said anything about hyperlexia. She just really understood phonics and then the sheer amount of reading she was doing meant her comprehension skills became really good too. Her Y1 teacher said “she just gets it”. She was also excellent at writing and her speech was quite advanced from a young age. We did suspect ASD due to some traits around noise/eye contact and she had a full assessment at age 10 but she didn’t meet the criteria for a diagnosis.

I thought comprehension was good but I think he might get that from the pictures. I have just asked him about the book he read half of yesterday and it took a lot of prompting to get much out of him. Mostly he said 'I can't remember'. I think if I gave him the book to remind him he'd use the pictures to tell me the story.

Maybe it's not as good as I thought.

Are you saying he can't read a word he hasn't seen before?
I'm slightly surprised he is a free reader in that case.

I’ve taught a few really excellent readers who were autistic (or later diagnosed). School policy was always to keep doing the same things as everyone else but they understandably found it very boring! So I would usually challenge them with a book and then we’d have a little 1:1 to talk about the aspects that were more challenging for them like character’s motivations.

No, he can, but it doesn't seem to be phonetic decoding. More that he's applying rules from words he's seen before.

School have been quite good as I know ofsted says they're not allowed to give books they haven't learned the phonics for. Meant to be a whole class at same point approach.

But they've allowed him to move ahead, he's reading lime, lime + and brown short chapter books.

Yes, lime, lime + and brown it seems from the range of books he brings. He brings chapter books home from these ranges.

My son does this too but is excellent at comprehension. Kids just don’t like being quizzed on books and who can blame them 😂 best way to find out is to read the book yourself and then just engage them in conversation about it. You’ll quickly see if he’s understood!

(And also, it’s excellent to be using the illustrations to build on comprehension so don’t worry that he’s doing that)

Yes, it's highly likely that he just can't be bothered to talk to me about it 🤣.

I don't think school would have moved him to this level if he hadn't been able to show good comprehension, they seem quite keen on this.

If you really want to know if he can comprehend as well as just read, try writing your own text without pictures and getting him to have a look at it. Even just a very short story would be enough, just make sure it's something unusual so he isn't just guessing what would happen based on what he's read previously.

The other obvious answer is to just explicitly ask his teachers. They will absolutely know if he's a genuine good reader across all the skills, or if he barks at print.

I was reading fluently by age 4, learned by word recognition as far as I can remember. I started learning because I wanted to read books like my mum did. I was also writing legibly by reception age, simple sentences with good spelling. I am autistic.

My mother refused to teach me to read but after my first term at school I was fluent. We didn't do phonics in those days.

I'm not ND, I'm just a natural reader and I still read faster than almost everyone I know, with comprehension. I've never heard the term hyperlexic but if it were my son I'd just be delighted that he learnt to read easily because it makes school so much easier to navigate.

Both DDs were reading fluently by 3/4. They enjoyed being read to and pretty well taught themselves by staring at their favourite stories. (Ladybird books which are fab.) I don't think you could call it hyperlexia? They were both desperate to form letters so they could write their own stories. I still have some, 40-odd years later and they are so cute to read.
Enjoy your little boy, he sounds lovely!

I was like this, I could read quite well by the time I started reception (and am a July baby) and was reading books aimed at adults by the time I was in year 5.
I just enjoyed reading though rather than being particularly gifted

Is it a short term memory issue rather than mot know the story

My son could read almost fluently by 2.5, including words like 'transplantation' (that one sticks in my mind to this day). His nursery were stunned.

Had little to no comphrension till quite a bit older. Was diagnosed with ASD at 5.I think that's the difference with hyperlexia.

I have hyperlexia as does my daughter.
We were both reading, writing & doing basic sums all long before school. However for it to be Hyperlexia, I believe the mathematical skills need to be on a par with that of English & reading?

Mine both read the Harry Potter books aged 6. They took to reading like ducks to water but grew up in a house full of books. We all chatted about what we were reading.

Mine were natural linguists rather than natural mathmos. One is an academic and the other is an English teacher.

His maths skills are pretty good too. He seems to grasp numbers so knows times tables and seems to like to manipulate numbers in his head.