Hyperlexia

[shellyjules]

Hi everyone,
I’m really hoping someone here might be able to help or point me in the right direction.
My 3-year-old son has an extraordinary ability when it comes to reading and numbers—he can decode written words and do simple maths far beyond his age. However, he really struggles with comprehension and understanding spoken language. While his speech is fluent and not delayed, he has a language disorder that makes it very difficult for him to understand what’s being said to him. He also uses a lot of echolalia—often repeating back questions rather than answering them.
He’s a lovely, happy little boy with no behavioural issues, but I know he needs the right support to help him thrive. I’m trying to find an educational psychologist in the UK who has experience with hyperlexia, but I’ve hit a wall. It seems so little is known about it here compared to the US—I’ve searched the internet, checked LinkedIn, and asked friends and family, but no luck so far.
If anyone has been through something similar, knows of a professional who specialises in this area, or can offer any guidance at all, this very worried mum would be incredibly grateful.
Thank you so much in advance 💛

I'm not clear from your post what you're seeking support with - as in, what would you like your DS to be able to do that he can't do now, or how would you like to better meet his needs? Or is it that you want someone to help channel his abilities in written language to help his communication?

Hyperlexia isn't a diagnosis used in the UK. I'm not a professional, but I query how useful a term it is, as it seems to group together children who are early readers but otherwise neurotypical, and those whose unusual abilities or interests in letters and/nor numbers are a feature of their neurodivergence. If you're just concerned that his ability to read and decode words is in advance of his comprehension, that's not uncommon in children learning to read, especially via synthetic phonics. Its why schools will also focus on checking comprehension, as would assessments of a child's reading skills.

Hi he sounds lovely and very similar to our youngest daughter at that age. She could recognise numbers up to hundreds of thousands and read by the age of 3. She could also count backwards from 100 and tell 24 hour clock time from the age of 2 or 3.
She also had calendar skills remembering multiple dates and birthdays or the day and date that something happened a year or more later.

At this early age she also used echolalia and struggled with comprehension and making choices.
She was diagnosed with SPD then autism age 3 1/2.

I’m not sure why you are looking for an EP who specialises in Hyperlexia though? Most will have a working knowledge of it. By all means request a general assessment if you wish.

I’d be looking at his wider development as I suspect he has an uneven developmental profile? How are his fine and gross motor skills? Does he attend a Nursery or Preschool setting and have they expressed any concerns about his social communication and interaction skills?

I know you must be worried but every child is different. I’d be encouraging other interests and play skills whilst acknowledging his skills and interests. Have you seen Blank level questions? To encourage comprehension when sharing books. I expect SALT will have provided strategies.

Most experienced EPs will have experience of hyperlexia because it isn’t rare as part of a wider profile of needs. If you want recommendations of EPs, you could look at Jemma Levy, Craig Tribe, Ruth Birnbaum, Patsy Kershaw, Jonathan Middleton. Vivienne Clifford, Nick Palmer…

Is DS receiving continued SALT input? I think that would be most helpful at this stage, given the language disorder.

Is DS attending nursery? What support are they providing?