Any advice on hyperlexia?

[BaresarkBunny]

DS was diagnosed with an ASD when he was about 2. He recently started school and the teacher has mentioned that she thinks he has hyperlexia.

There is really not much information on the internet about this and was just wondering if anyone has any experience of it?

Yes, ds has it. It's about fluent early reading which sounds great, but it frequently overlooks lack of understanding in what's being read.

Ds didn't get much attention in school where reading was concerned because it was assumed that his expressive reading meant he had no problems, however as years went by and work began to get more challenging it became clear that he wasn't understanding what he was reading. That became apparent in comprehension exercises and open discussion.

I'm not sure what's recommended for working with hyperlexia other than reading books together and discussing events that happen, to ensure understanding is there. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can come along and enlighten us both .

Its just advanced reading skills really. My ds started reading at 18 months, loved letters. Its actually quite good and has helped him to be more verbal than he may have been had he not had this skill as when he was 3 he just used one word answers but reading fluently has helped him put words together and build on his verbal skills.
The only thing you have to make sure is that he understands what he is reading as this maybe behind his advanced ability to read.

Yep, DS1(6) has hyperlexia and like others have mentioned, he can read just about anything, but you can't always assume he understands it any more than if you'd told him about it. We have to screen books carefully to make sure they're not outside of his age and interest level, while providing enough of a challenge for him to read. He could pick up many of the nuances of a story about a child having a real life adventure with an alien from a video game, for example, but was totally lost and turned off by a bunch of kids finding themselves in a medieval castle.

Of course, he's going through a maddening stage of pretending he can't read anything , but, ah well, if he would really rather not read than get to play with his computer, that's up to him :o

Whilst I wouldn't say that either myself or Ds1 has this, both of us have very strong traits as part of our ASDs, though Ds1 falls closer to the definition than I do as he also has the understanding difficulties.
Basically, with myself it goes:

1: Learned to read early, had reading age of 13 when I was 7.

2: Very prolific reader from a young age, can read 2 - 3 novels a day, though with children this is usually reduced to one a day.

3: Fascinated with letters and a bit with numbers, although I am crap at maths. Will count number of es on a page, or go down the sentences looking for the alphabet in order. Will choose codewords in puzzle books as a favourite.

4: Will focus on words written down and think of alternatives for them. Will count the number of letters in them. Will hyperfocus on things like the difference between could, should, ought and must.

5: Will write or think alphabetical lists of topics, eg animals or types of food.

6: Will repeat poems in my head, counting the syllables in the poem as I do so.

Ds1:

1: He is reading very well for his age in terms of physically understanding the letters, but struggles to understand even the basic concept of many of his stories. He will focus on particular words in the story and ask what they mean, but unless the book is very clear he won't pick up on a lot of what is happening.

2: He loves writing and will focus on certain things, often names of children in his class, and can spend literally hours writing words. His writing is neater than mine . He will copy passages from stories that he likes over and over - Mr Tickle being a recent example.

3: He loves numbers and has been fascinated by them since he was tiny. He'll count out the numbers on our street and until recently many places in town were known by a number.

4: He is starting to ask what individual words mean and has been fascinated with alliteration, even setting himself "homework" to continue with it this week, so I think that he is also picking up on a fascination with words and how they sound and their meaning as well.

Hi folks - old thread I know, but wanted more advice on this. I'm an EY teacher and there is a 3 yo child showing these traits. Reads but does not understand, obsessive about ordering numbers and the alphabet. No interest in other children. Lots of ASD type traits - sensory, speech and social. Still in nappies. Has been in preschool and had S&L but nothing unusual noted by them (!!!). We have never had a child with these needs in school before. Advice?