Hyperlexia

[36and3]

My ds is 2y8m and I'm querying whether he has hyperlexia and whether there's anything I should be doing to support. Does it even need a diagnosis?

Since turning 2 he has been pretty obsessed with letters and has known all letter names and their corresponding phase 2 sounds. He can reorder the alphabet when out of sequence and can recite the whole alphabet backwards (I struggle!!).

He can hear initial sounds of words, eg will say "whale starts with letter w and that makes the sound w", "v is for vulture, the sound is vvvv". He will spell words out that he sees but as individual letter names for now. He can spell his name verbally and can read it written down.

Is this a sign of hyperlexia? I'm aware this can be a trait of autism. Hes good with numbers too in that he can read them and reorder them to 20, will read door numbers etc but its definitely letters that is making me google.

My son was hyper lexical, by the time your child is around 7-8 years old you’ll hardly notice the difference I didn’t do anything and school didn’t either they gave him a reading assessment when he started and put him on the correct book band for his ability. In my opinion there’s no reason to push it, they will be ahead anyway why make the gap bigger, your child will be bored at school as it is.

Oh I definitely don't want to make things harder! Great, thanks, will just plod on!

Just parent the child you have. If he likes words then great introduce him to poetry and plays too. He could even start learning to memorize and recite short ones.

DD was like that and is autistic. Hates reading fiction though despite a reading age of 16 at 6 (did not show what she could do at school for a good few months when she started though due to the 'tism we didn't know she had).

She LOVES words as tools and watching Shakespeare, satirical shows, plays and poetry readings / spoken word nights.

Maths she's a whiz at too, so gets involved in maths competitions, is doing Maths and Further Maths at GCSE.

Christmas presents should feature word games, logic puzzles and number games, chess. Learning Resources website is a great place to start for all ages and Think Fun and Brain Box games on Amazon as he gets older.

Scrabble we used to play our own version and write a long word in the middle as the theme and build out from there.

It doesn't scream hyperlexia to me. I would say that it's the more advanced end of normal. DS was similar at that age and he's a better than average reader at 5 and top group for phonics but not that out of step with his peers.

Thanks both! This is the only sign of autism that I can see so far but I'll be on the front foot to keep an eye. Hes very chatty, loves imaginative play, good eye contact, didactic conversations, reads emotions, affectionate. But who knows!

Interesting, thank you for replying.

Hyperlexia is a really useful skill, it’s never a problem, really. Both of mine are hyperlexic (DS1 also AuDHD) and it’s never exactly held them back. Other autistic traits are clearly barriers to learning (perfectionism, emotional overwhelm, communication and interaction issues), so if you suspect autism, that would be worth investigating.

From what you’ve said it doesn’t sound like hyperlexia.

Thank you all for replying. Out of interest for those of you who don't think hyperlexia - what would you say is an example of it?

At 2.5 my DD was reading "Meg and Mog" standard books, and was absolutely hyperlexic. Diagnosed ASD at 9.

Just to add - she was reading everything, all
Of the time. It had an almost obsessional quality to it.

DD wasn't obviously autistic really at least not things that couldn't be brushed off as an only child used to talking more to adults than children, and nothing at all that was problematic until the teen years and she struggled with the transition to Secondary School and really started to struggle with noisy environments.

Never broke a rule, can have very deep and eloquent conversations but never picks up on conversational cliffhangers or more than about 3 returns of small talk. Roleplay she did but was perfectly recreated stories from books or other media. Games had to be played on her terms. Always chosen for school council, sports teams, public speaking, Mary in the Nativty play or the narrator, school tours for prospective parents through Primary - that child MN loves to hate etc

But it doesn't hold her back we have the adjustments in place that she needs, plenty of down time and noise cancelling headphones, has great friends who all have their own quirks so if he is the lower support needs side of things (which there is no real sign of) it certainly isn't the end of the world.

It’s largely word reading well beyond age expectations without having been taught. It’s not uncommon for 2 year olds to show an interest in letters or numbers so knowing them wouldn’t necessarily count. Especially if adults have been reacting to that and encouraging it.

Don’t get me wrong, he sounds bright but none of the things really leap out as hyperlexia. If you haven’t seen any other signs of autism I wouldn’t worry that this was a sign of something.

Thank you everyone for replying