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stripey
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17 Oct 2006, 7:31 pm

Although i have been diagnosed with AS i did not know at the time of consultation that i am hyperlexic, would this have made an impact on the eventual diagnosis.

I think i am hyperlexic when i was at school i was 2-3 books ahead of the other children, but i felt i had cheated the teacher, when i read the words of the book and progressed.

I just read the individual words without knowing what the book was about.

Any thoughts.



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17 Oct 2006, 7:40 pm

At first I thought that I may have hyperlexia, but later found out that this may not be the case. I actually did understand what the books were about that I mentally absorbed in elementary school, so I am not sure what I have.


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17 Oct 2006, 8:11 pm

stripey wrote:
I just read the individual words without knowing what the book was about.

Any thoughts.

I'm not sure if I was hyperlexic or not, but this line describes me perfectly. I used to be very good at reading in school (in early grades, at least), yet at the same time, I would read the whole story and not even know what's it about. Interestingly, I was able to answer almost every question the teacher asked on the test, but when I had to tell what the story was about, all I could do was give a blank stare. The whole time, I would wonder on the inside: "I answered the teacher's questions; what more does she want from me?"



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17 Oct 2006, 8:16 pm

Aspie1 wrote:
(...) Interestingly, I was able to answer almost every question the teacher asked on the test, but when I had to tell what the story was about, all I could do was give a blank stare. The whole time, I would wonder on the inside: "I answered the teacher's questions; what more does she want from me?"


I know exactly what you mean!! ! It was the same for me; it got to the point when I would try to look for the "hidden meaning" of the story (so that I would do better on the test)...

More often than not, though, I would simply go WAY too far and miss the point altogether.

I always thought this was strange, since I could read so fast and understood what most of the words MEANT, but that the "core" of the story always seemed to elude me...



Pippen
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17 Oct 2006, 8:25 pm

It wouldn't likely have had any impact on a clinical diagnosis. Most of the kids who go through evaluations for Hyperlexia these days are also getting a co-morbid diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder or at least the recognition of some ASD traits.

In diagnosing Hyperlexia they usually look for intense fascination (often obsession!) of letters and/or words and precocious reading ability (prior to age 5) without formal instruction. Diagnosis typically doesn't hinge around the issue of comprehension--it obviously a child who is reading at age 2 will be able to read words far beyond his/her ability to be able to developmentally understand what they read.



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17 Oct 2006, 8:27 pm

I have the opposite problem, dyslexia, I can read really good but I cannot spell to save my life, but I always seem to catch my mistakes right away.


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KimJ
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17 Oct 2006, 8:39 pm

My son is a very good reader but I would not say he is Hyperlexic. He is 6 yr old in first grade and just skipped a level and is in the 2nd grade reading level (one of the very few reasons I like his school www.successforall.org )
He also has comprehension problems which is why I tutor him in just comprehension. You can get a textbook/workbook from a teacher's store. This is 1st grade level, not the reading level he's in. I pick interesting stories that he can enjoy.
Comprehension also affects writing assignments. If you don't know what a story is about, you'll have trouble creating/constructing a story. Handwriting is another issue and I do some of the exercises on the computer so he doesn't have the extra stress of holding the pencil.
I learned about hyperlexia a couple of months ago, in the spring. It looks like there was a failed attempt at segregating the diagnosis from "classic autism". I don't see the point in it, a separate diagnosis.



Pippen
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17 Oct 2006, 9:35 pm

Hyperlexia definitely goes beyond being a strong reader. My kiddo independently spelled his first word at age 2 1/2. Shortly after he turned 3 I walked into a room and found him phonetically working out the words on the side of a box: "Land's End Direct Merchandising".

Hyperlexia is a condition that is basically up for grabs in terms of how it's assigned/classified/recognized and I think will remain that way until there is some really firm research to back up any move. The medical community frequently sees it as a savant or splinter skill associated with ASDs in the same way a person might be precocious in math or music. The speech/language world sees it as having very significant communication implications because the written word opens a communication pathway for children with weak or nondeveloped verbal language skills. Many parents of Hyperlexic children argue that is should have it's own place on or alongside the spectrum...but no one writing the DSM criteria manuals seem to be asking parents so I wouldn't look for that to happen anytime soon. ;-)



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17 Oct 2006, 11:28 pm

I am probably hyperlexic; however, if you are reading posts I've made on any forum in the past year or so, you probably can't tell that. I eventually came to the realization that, from a practical standpoint, such verbosity was far too time-consuming unless I was getting paid for it.



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17 Oct 2006, 11:34 pm

Personally I've always had an obsession with words, but also how they're used in a flow. The point where I get confused is bringing it to a social setting, when talking to people I generally use the most simple words I can, I always know what the story is about etc, but I tended to skip whole sections that didn't involve new words, or new ways of using words...

Once I got to say 4-5 I found lord of the rings, the most long-winded book in history, and since I decided to read it all I kinda taught myself how to understand what was going on, since then the way I've read has been different.. I start reading the words, and after a line or two, it all becomes visuals imagined directly in my head, I stop seeing the words alltogether..

When I'm writing however I tend to move in circles, or dance around the point I'm trying to make, I think hyperlexia can come in many forms..

ie:

one may not be able to understand more than each word effectively..

and another may be able to understand the words, AND sentences but never be able to apply them to social settings, or be able to correctly apply grammar.

I always kicked ass at spelling, but as soon as I was trying to explain a point, I started using only simple words, and losing my focus on the topic because I couldn't understand how to explain it to others.

A quote from wiki:

"Often, the child has a large vocabulary and can identify many objects and pictures, but cannot put their language skills to good use."

Meaning I think some of us may be extra skilled with specific words, but terrible at putting them together, yet that person would probably find it easier to speak than someone that can put them together skillfully, yet finds it hard to define the point..

If I spend a few weeks writing something I can manage to round it down to a specific point, but I have to be VERY interested in the topic to begin with.


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18 Oct 2006, 1:00 am

i'm better at syntax than semantics.

is that the point of this thread?



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18 Oct 2006, 1:49 am

read the encyclopdedia front-to-back then moved on to the Iliad and the Odyssey when I was... not sure, but under 6. Pretty sure of that. It was a while ago. Think I figured out how to read at 3 or 4 if I recall correctly.



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18 Oct 2006, 2:29 am

I'm hyperlexic. Hyperlexia is in effect the opposite of dyslexia - it even effects there corresponding area in the opposite part of the brain from the part effected by dyslexia. Dyslexia, in a nutshell, is high expressive/oral language but poor reading/writing skills. Hyperlexia is high reading/writing skills with poor expressive/oral language. Both are disorders of acquired language skills, since both have difficulty learning in their respective weak areas, but also intergrating those skills (once learned) with their strengths. Hence dyslexics resist using their acquired reading skills, wanting to rely heavily on oral skills, and hyperlexics will resist expressive language, preferring to rely heavily on verbosity, writing and rote skills/learning.

I have worked with both dyslexic and hyperlexic kids, and yes, they are this polar opposite in life as the dry data suggests. It's kind of freaky at times. But since I'm hyperlexic, teaching them it relatively easy - whatever I do for one, I just do the opposite for the other.

As a hyperlexic, expressive/oral language is something I have always found "counterintuitive" and I have to continually work at it. If I don't practice regularly in some form, I can begin to lose the skills i've learned up to this point and essentially would have to relearn them. When I had a breakdown at 22, and withdrew from society for almost 3 years, I quickly lost a lot of oral skills I had learned in high school and college. So at age 25, I had to relearn how to introduce myself, express my feelings, be conversational, etc. I still suck at introducing myself - I often forget to give people my name when I meet them, jumping right to "meat" of the interaction or conversation.



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18 Oct 2006, 7:37 am

Pippen wrote:
In diagnosing Hyperlexia they usually look for intense fascination (often obsession!) of letters and/or words and precocious reading ability (prior to age 5) without formal instruction. Diagnosis typically doesn't hinge around the issue of comprehension--it obviously a child who is reading at age 2 will be able to read words far beyond his/her ability to be able to developmentally understand what they read.


This definitely describes my oldest son to a T, he's 5 1/2 now and in grade Primary and while he can recognize words at a grade 4 level, he can read orally at an upper grade 3 level but his reading comprehension is at a lower grade 2 level. He's always been intensely fascinated with numbers and letters and always decodes every written thing he sees. He was reading orally with clarity before age 4 but due to his speech delay being so severe before 3 1/2 yrs of age we think he was reading but he would only make sounds while pointing at each word back as early as 2. While I read to him alot, he did most of his own learning to teach and a diagnosis of hyperlexia they do really at whether the child is simply 'decoding' vs. 'understanding' what he/she is reading.



Pippen
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18 Oct 2006, 9:29 am

What seems to have occured is that there are a number of statements out there on the internet that represent the extremes in describing Hyperlexia: Precocious reading but no verbal speech or comprehension of verbal language, precocious reading but not being able to comprehend what they read, precocious reading but significant delays in the social and speech areas, etc. But when you listen to what parents of Hyperlexic children and Hyperlexic adults report clearly there's a lot more range than what those statements contain. And even if an individual does start out at one of the extremes it doesn't mean they stay there. It makes it confusing for people looking for information when they had a kid like mine when whose pattern was typical early speech, alphabet obsession/precocious reading, later onset speech delays when language became more complex, strong preference for written text but not reliance for communication, followed by eventual strong verbal communication skills.

Because it has some kinship with spectrum disorders, it only makes sense that there would be a range in those areas describing comprehension as well. I've pretty much come to think of it as a learning style more than anything else.



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18 Oct 2006, 10:00 am

Yeah, I first became interested in Hyperlexia because my son matched the initial "fascinated with numbers and letters" at around 2 ish. But he didn't do much with that fascination for a while. He learned to sight read at 3 which is faster than NTs but slower than learning to read phonetically.
He's considered ahead for his grade level but I was his age in grade 2 and reading at the same level. So, it's all relative. I think he'd be more advanced if he understood what he was reading more.