A new term I learned very recently from a friend of mine. Hyperlexia. I had described some of S’s reading struggles this year. She scored way off the charts for 2nd grade in terms of reading fluency. But scored below average for comprehension. My friend said it sounded like S had hyperlexia. Never heard of the term. What would we have done 20 years ago to learn more? I would have gone to the library and looked through the card catalog and encyclopedias. What did I do this time? I jumped onto my laptop, and did a google search. An incredible wealth of articles, information, blogs, etc. And let me tell you. It was a hell of a find.
In the words of my husband, after I forwarded him a link to a particular sight, “The most accurate reflection of S’s symptoms and challenges I have read yet.” I felt exactly the same way.
So what is it? Taken from http://www.hyperlexia.net/hyperlexia-facts.html
Hyperlexia is a syndrome observed in children who have the following characteristics:
- A precocious ability to read words, far above what would be expected at their chronological age or an intense fascination with letters or numbers. This is normally how hyperlexia is described. Precocious is quite a word defined as “early development or maturity”.
- Difficilty in understanding verbal language
- Difficulty in socializing and interacting with other people
that’s it in a nutshell.
Another site I found helpful and similar: http://www.ldail.org/Hyplexi.cfm
Everything I have been reading, so much has been my little S. Learning language by memorizing sentences and sentence structure. Never really knowing what the meaning she was saying. She taught herself to read at a young age by memorizing. She has a wonderful visual memory. She needs to keep routines. She has difficulty with the why, what, where, who, how questions. She seemed to have normal development until 18-24 months. She thinks in concrete and literal terms, and the abstract is difficult.
All the outlines on social difficulties is right there, too. It’s like I was reading about my own journal of my child instead of info online. It’s fascinating to see it in one place. Scary that we never knew that this term existed. Saddened that I’m only coming to it now. Saddened by what this may mean going forward. Yet hopeful, too.
I’ll write more on this tomorrow. But take a look at these websites. If you have a child like this, the info, while overwhelming could be really helpful. Feel free to pass it around!
