Has anyone’s dc been diagnosed with Hyperlexia?

[StabbyMacStabby]

Is this rare, it doesn?t seem to come up very often? I have searched for old threads which mention it, and it looks like it?s not very common? Links here and this. These are the definitions we have looked at.

I?ve been googling this as my DS?s TA mentioned it in connection with him, and having researched it on the internet I think she has good reason to suspect it.

What I find difficult to make out from the info given is whether this is just a complication of ASD, or a separate condition of its own, with similar characteristics to ASD? I?m certain in my own mind that DS is most likely on the spectrum, and I think this could just be a facet of that. But I haven?t a clue really. (I did suspect hyperlexia myself once but had dismissed it because DS seemed to lose interest in the alphabet and concentrated on Big & Small etc instead...)

Plus, anyone know if hyperlexia is associated with HFA or Asperger's in particular?

This book is good. Despite the title, it's not about babies.

It was never officially diagnosed for my ds but both the Paed and SALT talked about it during various appointments. They were keen to make sure the school realised that there was a vast difference between ds' ability to read and his ability to understand.

Ds was able to type words at an early age but without ever having been taught. Even before he had any real language skills he would read random words out if they interested him. I can remember dh reading some paperwork and ds suddenly reading the word "unforeseen". He would have been 2yrs old at the time.

Ds was diagnosed with HFA.

I think it's rarely diagnosed on its own, since by definition, it's associated with language delays (and hence is much more often a feature of autism than aspergers).

DS1 (ASD/ADHD) had quite a big and varied vocabulary form an early age, but was using it to label rather than communicate. He knew his alphabet and letter sounds and taught himself to write before he was 3. Even before his first birthday, he was spotting visual patterns (he refused to eat unless the two digital clocks in the kitchen were synchronised). At 14 months, he was shouting out "four!" in Toys R Us because the sign for checkout 4 was flashing and he was recognising logos at around the same time. By 2 he was recognising words and then when he was 4, he discovered phonics via the starfall website and very quickly became a fluent reader. He's always been fond of word play, too, pointing out words which sound alike or rhyme. He read the words Batch and Butch, one, so wandered round chanting Batch Betch Bitch Botch Butch over and over! :o

Learning to read really helped him with his communication because it exposed him to speech patterns he just wasn't hearing properly, since his auditory discrimination isn't good.

Ironically, he hates reading, now. He'll only read for information. HIs comprehension is also really hampered by his communication and social delays. I think that one of the reasons he's given up on fiction is the fact that feelings are often discussed and there is an expectation of reading between the lines, which he can't do, so he doesn't get the full nuance of a story.

DS1 hasn't been dx-ed with hyperlexic, but I think he probably is/was?
He was always obsessed by letters and words e.g. couldn't eat a yogurt without knowing what every word on the pot (including ingredients) said, couldn't walk past a sign without having to know what it said. He knew all his phonics by age 2, and at 3 worked out how to read. By 5 he was reading books like Harry Potter. He has consistently had a reading/comprehension age about 4 years ahead. He does have Aspergers though.
I taught myself to read when I was 2 - my mum had gone out of her way not to teach me, after she tried to teach my older brother and put him right off reading. By 4 I was conversant in large chunks of the Encylopedia Britanica! However, having done lots of the different AS tests on line, I score extremely highly in all of them .

I think it is often associated with ASD or Aspergers.

Dd1 could recognise words at around 2 she had a massive vocabulary and was obssessed with writing her name and other words. She has no dx but i am sure she has AS.

Dd3 recognised and obssessed over all the shop logos and road names and she taught herself to read and write before she went to school. She has a dx of ASD.

Hyperlexia was never mentioned to me and both girls are bright so they could just have done these things anyway.

But they are only really able to perform when the topic interests them and is factual.

Im sure ds has this, he never learnt to read in the conventional way ie phonics and sounding out. He just memorised words at about 2 years old and would 'read' signs etc as we passed them and whole books at about 3 years old. He is obsessed with reading, patterns, lines etc. He never used phonics, he just memorised words, much like how an adult would read, he just recognised words, without having to sound them out.

He is now 8 and has a very advanced reading age, but delayed language, communication etc. He has a dx of general ASD.

Ds was diagnosed at 4, he could read at 2 (I didn't know he could until he would spell words with magnetic letters from memory) but couldn't really speak until six or seven although he could read out loud at five. He had a diagnosis of autism at three.

My very quirky DS3 could read without being taught at 3. Amazed me as DS1 took ages to learn. Definitely could read way beyond his understanding. No DX but DS2 is DXed ASD. I read up hyperlexia and it seemed a pretty good fit for DS3, but he has developed socially and wouldn't benefit from a DX IMO.

We think our ds2 has hyperlexia but thats just me and DH doing the dx! He was dx with HFA aged 3.6. Despite speech delay he could read lots of words/names by 2.5. Could count to 20 and knew all letter sounds by 20 months. We have done no phonics with him at all but he can read a book very well, but does have huge difficulty with comprehension and retelling in his own words but his ability with reading amazes me. He just knew what words had to sound like with no blending, phonics at all. We read up on it and thought ds ticked all the boxes.

Wow, thanks all for your replies! (I never expect any... ) It's amazing how early some children can learn to read, given that it's a skill so many people struggle with picking up. I'm kind of worried that it will turn out to be an isolated skill, in that maybe DS will be able to read all sorts of text and yet not comprehend what is actually being said. It's definitely helping him with his speech though - he has had speech and language delay and reading a word like "helicopter" has helped him sort out how it should sound (which is not hevilopta, imho )

Your dc all seem rather more advanced than my DS - he learned to use the computer when he was one and watched the Alphablocks obsessively, so he knew the appearance and sounds of the letters by the time he was two (and numbers too but not so much), but like I said, he seemed to lose interest for a while - not that he forgot anything...

Is it fair to say the hyperlexia has made a difference to how your DC cope at school, or has it not made much of a difference in the long run, given that reading skill is advanced of comprehension?

Thanks for the link to the book, Maria - I'm sure I'll resist buying it for a few hours days before succumbing

And thanks to you all, really - I tend to lurk more than post so your names are all familiar in a cosy sort of way - and I always fret that any thread I might start will result in Thread Tumbleweed...

Hi stabby. Ds is only in reception so its hard to say how much it helps, but he is in mainstream with a statement. I can say that despite his many difficulties he can access the curriculum and do all work-usually under protest! That definately helps him with his confidence as he has enough other issues to contend with. He has SALT activities daily to help with comprehension etc and hopefully he will improve in this

I think that the Dd's have benefitted in their early days at school as reading came so easily to them.

As they got older and comprehension became part of the teachers requirements they slowed down abit.

Dd3 is particularly good at finding answers to questions that are in the text but anything which requires her point of view or to read between the lines is beyond her at the moment.

She can still perform at a high level but i can see a time in the not too distant future that she wont get by simply on her decoding skills.

She is 9 by the way.

DS2 is like this as well. Reads incredibly well for his age, obsessed with letters and numbers, but doesn't understand what he's reading. Can sound out practically any word. And he did the echolalia speech for ages (still does tbh in some situations).

See, that's the nub, the bit that's bothering me: it's all very well if your dc are visual learners who struggle to process verbal instructions if you can also provide written instruction to help them to understand what they are supposed to do, but if they also struggle to comprehend written material, they really are snookered. It's a worry...

How old is your DS2, Triggles? We still get echolalia a lot of the time, but DS is steadily improving and adding new phrases to his files every day

Ds is now 11.

His teachers were very good at helping him to slowly build up his comprehension skills. I remember the Paed and SALT explaining that whereas other children could use their language skills to help with their reading, ds could use his reading skills to help with his language.

By the end of Yr2 he was getting very high scores for reading comprehension, and it continued to be one of his strongest subjects in primary school. He read a lot of non-fiction books, and is/was fortunate enough to have an ability to remember pretty much everything he reads.

He's now nearing the end of his first year of secondary and his teachers have commented on his range of knowledge and his ability to use it and adapt it in his schoolwork.

He's recently become interested in reading fiction books. This has been a massive surprise as fiction was something he only read under sufferance before now. I think this has also helped him with understanding relationships and conversations between people.

Well done on de-lurking! :o

Thanks for that, Coppertop, that's really encouraging. So glad your son is doing really well. I was wondering how older children would be managing now as a result of early intervention - it does help to be able to focus on a more positive outlook than I usually do, under the guise of "being realistic". It's great that your DS has had such good support from his teachers .

(I do namechange a lot occasionally, if I feel I've made a fool of myself. Maybe next should be LurkyMacLurky... )

Is it fair to say the hyperlexia has made a difference to how your DC cope at school, or has it not made much of a difference in the long run, given that reading skill is advanced of comprehension?

For DS1 his teacher didn't even realise he could read until 6 weeks before the end of reception . He spent most of his time hidden under a desk to scared to come out, and as he was quiet and not disturbing people he tended to be left there. He got sent home a list of 15 words a night to learn to read (before the big phonics push there is now) and although he magically just knew them by the next day (ie already knew them) his teacher just didn't realise he could read. Once DS asked if he could have two sheets to learn and was brushed away - more help in pushing his ever decreasing self esteem into the floor. Then at the end of the year I think they must have done a reading test with all the children as his teacher came out all excited that DS 'could read'. I wasn't sure whether to be that they had finally twigged (I had obviously told them he could read before starting school) or that it took that long to notice! However school policy was that they HAD to read every book in the school reading scheme. So for the last 6 weeks of the summer reception term he was given 6 reading books a night to try and get him onto the books from the junior department.

He has since left this school to one where he is more valued! His love of reading has helped with his writing ability - he struggles to write fiction (but great at writing factual projects) so his teachers started with writing "write a star wars story but don't use the star wars characters names", but now he is really into reading Alex Rider, and he is starting to write fairly reasonable spy stories.

It has helped ds in that he can read words, that he couldnt previously 'hear' the right sound of. He used to call McDonalds, Huckdonalds for example because that is obviously how he heard it and no matter how many times i emphasised the M he couldnt get. When he read the sign he asked me "why didnt you tell me it was Mcdonalds and not Huckdonalds!

It has hindered and helped him, as it 'hides' his other difficulties well. So good as others dont see his difficulties and helps him to 'blend' in a bit more. But not so good, for getting him help with his other difficulties, as it masks them ie how can he read so well, if he has difficulties with x, y and z.

My DS aged 6 was obsessed with letters, numbers and sequencing from about 2 1/2. He effectively taught himself to read by insisting on having the subtitles up for Fireman Sam - I had nothing to do with teaching him . To soothe himself he liked counting backwards from 1000 or got me to do it! He has ASD. Now in Year 1 he is reading a couple of years ahead of everyone else and while I wouldn't say that he was a natural mathematician, he is good with numbers. His comprehension is very good too. Nice to be able share this here in context - all the NT mums think I am some evil Tiger mother!

My sense is that it has been a blessing and being good at reading has given a huge boost to his self-esteem. He loves making up stories. Writing them down is a bit a struggle though as he is dyspraxic but we will get there!

On balance, it has helped DS1. Like Claw's DS, he straightened out some misponounciatiations (eg used to say Tuwwin instead of tummy until he could read the word) so his rudimentary communication became easier to understand. It also earned him hero status with the older kids, when he read out loud in assembly when he was just in reception. In the early days, finding all the academic stuff easy (since he has proved to be extremely bright, anyhow) meant we could relax and concentrate on the social side of school, which he found extremely difficult once he was out of the safety of the foundation unit.

OTOH, he has since become conscious of being way ahead of other kids. He doesn't want to read books at all because he finds what the other kids are reading easy and babyish. Then again, he struggles to understand the context of books at his mechanical reading level and, as I mentioned upthread, will now only read for information. He has the same ennui with maths. He can handle year 5 &6 maths, no problem, but won't attempt it. So he gets year 3 maths, which he considers beneath him and often refuses to do as well.

His language delay and lack of social awareness really manifests itself when it comes to creative writing in literacy, so he is at no advantage at all, here. Quite often, he has no idea where to start, especially if the stimulus is a real life type situation. If he can relate to a topic, then the work he produces is really good.

The only negative in my experience was once at school ds put his talents to good use by writing insulting notes about his teachers It's very difficult trying to explain that a child who can't string two words together can in fact write with no help and with perfect spelling "Mr S is a bloody idiot and a bald headed freak" and no it's not something he has heard me say and he probably got the words from reading the dictionary as he read it repeatedly.

Stabby he's 5yo. He's been able to hide some of his comprehension problems because he is good at regurgitating prior conversations word for word that he's either had or heard, and people think he "gets it" when he really hasn't a clue. Further questioning usually outs him on this, but often nobody questions him any further. He can rattle off a number of things, sometimes even actually getting it in the appropriate scenario, and still not have a clue what he's saying.

These are brilliant, thanks for taking the time to post them. You're really helping me come to terms with the potential positives and pitfalls that my DS may experience.

Since applying for a reception place in mainstream I've been worrying about whether I'm doing the right thing even trying him there. I do feel much more positive that at least it's worth a trial. His school are being very supportive, but they'll need to be because focusing on what is being said to him is not one of his strengths...

LittleMissGreen, it's really shocking that your DS's teacher had such little concern for his progress for a whole year! I'm so glad he's doing so much better now, but that "teacher"...

Cozzie don't feel bad for not actively teaching your DS to read - we're probably all in the same boat in that respect. It seems stopping them would be the tricky bit! Alphablocks did the deed for DS, not me!

insanity, is Mr S a bloody idiot, etc? Nice to know your DS can sum up the situation so well, if so

stabby I actually agreed and had to try hard to keep a straight face tbh