What exactly is hyperlexia?
Are you technically a hyperlexic if you taught yourself to read before the age of 5?
Or do you need to have other characteristics as well to be considered one? If so, what are they?
Different sources say different things.
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An Aspie's habits are incomprehensible to society not because they are illogical or the result of madness, but because they stem from a mind so original that they cannot be seen as societal norms.
hey... i learned to read at about 3. i didn't know there was a word for it.
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My opinion on this is, if they were taught not necesseraly, but selftaught children by the age of 3 then they will be a 99% propability that it is a hyperlexic child.
Interestingly many dyslexic children also read without comprehention, I did this too as a child, especially while reading loud. I didn't get what I read and I was dyslexic.
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"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
My opinion on this is, if they were taught not necesseraly, but selftaught children by the age of 3 then they will be a 99% propability that it is a hyperlexic child.
Interestingly many dyslexic children also read without comprehention, I did this too as a child, especially while reading loud. I didn't get what I read and I was dyslexic.
My opinion is swayed by the fact that myself and three siblings were all reading before school age. We were read to by our parents. I remember reading and understanding books at an early age. Most children could, if given a little encouragement, read by age five. Adult help is needed in order to gain comprehension.
Hyperlexia is common in children on the autism spectrum because they frequently have difficulties with NT semantic language i.e. the meanings of words, but are relatively good at decoding the structure or form of language, that is grammar and spelling. Often the semantic system catches up, with experience. Just to be complete, the other area of NT language that people on the spectrum often struggle with is pragmatics, that is appropriate use, or application, of language. Applies to both written and oral language development. (That's an observation from a speech and language development point of view, not a diagnostic criteria).
There are different types of dyslexia:
- visual dyslexia (- eg reversing letters, perceived blurriness of words or paragraph)
-phonological dyslexia. (aural skills including rhyme, sound to letter correspondence, breaking up words into sounds - and so cannot decode the text)
- comprehension difficulties. These may involve a breakdown in linguistic processing at any point.
> working memory problems means that the words you have read fall away from your mind before you have a chance to make sense of them.
> the working memory is taxed because of poor phonological processing problems. If you can't get the letters together quick enough, you forget them.
> figuring out the semantics, or meaning of what you are reading. The neurotypical who wrote the thing you are trying to read, thinks in a very different way from you. NTs do not realise that according to Aspies, the NTs are the ones with the communication difficulty!
https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org ... ant-skill/
A quick search showed this lengthy, detailed article. I gave up reading half way through. Why is it always necessary to label a child with a 'disorder'? Why can't the person doing the labelling try to adjust? I've noticed that there are some people who are good at communicating with all kinds of people, and others who are at a loss. This goes for cross-cultural communication as well as cross-neuro communication. sigh.
despite the fact that it can be coupled with the inability to understand the words, i also feel that this should not be classified as a disorder. only if it's coupled with the inability to understand, then it should be called a disorder. there needs to be more discretion when assigning values to these sorts of abilities.
my experience was that i was self-taught, but had reading comprehension skills that suffered well into the 6th and 7th grades, when i was "mainstreamed". even now, if i read something, even at a normal pace, sometimes i will "not get it" and have to re-read it several times to absorb it. I also had trouble with pragmatics, and simple grammar eluded me until my early college years and many frustrated tutors set me straight.
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Sweetleaf
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hmm then I wonder what it is if you start reading before you've been taught and actually understand the words within the context? I thought perhaps I had hyperlexia in the past since I somehow taught myself to read at the age of 5 but I was able to understand what I was reading...not just individual words.
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We won't go back.
So far I'm informed it's not in the DSM.
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"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
So far I'm informed it's not in the DSM.
do you have an idea that it may be included in the upcoming DSMV?
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http://psych.colorado.edu/~willcutt/pdf ... g_2011.pdf
This above is a more official sort of version of what I was saying before about the different types of dyslexia. (although in places, the language is ambiguous, and assumptions are made)
Hyperlexia itself is not a diagnosis, rather a feature of certain diagnoses. It doesn't seem to be well defined in the literature, like every other term of its kind.
So you have people including early or precocious readers within the terminology.
According to me however, hyperlexia is an advantage rather than a problem. If there is no comprehension while reading, or comprehension is below grade level, that should be labelled as being a reading comprehension problem. At least if one is attempting to read then it is a start.
Thanks for the replies WPer's .
Does this count as a comprehension problem..?
I'm able to read very quickly if I want to (and can concentrate enough at the time, sometimes I can't concentrate enough to read at-all), but it's like the words fall out of my brain before I get a chance to process what I just read. Like I can say all of the words in my head as I read them, but will have forgotten each word within less than a second of reading it. So if I read a paragraph this way, I wouldn't know what the paragraph was about. (sorry if I gave too many examples, I'm afraid of not making myself clear )
However:
I know (pretty much) exactly what I've read (provided I could concentrate properly when reading ) if I make myself read at a more average speed. I think that this is because I'm (sub)consciously making myself remember the info, and can only do this when I'm reading at what is slower than my natural speed.
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An Aspie's habits are incomprehensible to society not because they are illogical or the result of madness, but because they stem from a mind so original that they cannot be seen as societal norms.
Does this count as a comprehension problem..?
I'm able to read very quickly if I want to (and can concentrate enough at the time, sometimes I can't concentrate enough to read at-all), but it's like the words fall out of my brain before I get a chance to process what I just read. Like I can say all of the words in my head as I read them, but will have forgotten each word within less than a second of reading it. So if I read a paragraph this way, I wouldn't know what the paragraph was about. (sorry if I gave too many examples, I'm afraid of not making myself clear )
However:
I know (pretty much) exactly what I've read (provided I could concentrate properly when reading ) if I make myself read at a more average speed. I think that this is because I'm (sub)consciously making myself remember the info, and can only do this when I'm reading at what is slower than my natural speed.
What I understand from this is: you can read ok, at an average speed, but you are having difficulty reading quickly. In my opinion, that means you do not have a reading disorder. Not everybody can speed-read. Some people are self-taught speed readers but many have to do a little course and practice the skill. For myself I look at the paragraph as a whole, and scan for key words and their connections, until the meaning becomes clear. It is not about trying to remember every single word. I only read a sentence word after word if it is a very important point, or if I didn't grasp it the first time.
Having said that you don't have a reading disorder, I am going to contradict myself and say that if you are mentally gifted in any way, it is really frustrating not to be able to read as quickly as you want to -so in a way, yes there is some reading problem there. However you may be able to overcome it with practice and technique.
Does this count as a comprehension problem..?
I'm able to read very quickly if I want to (and can concentrate enough at the time, sometimes I can't concentrate enough to read at-all), but it's like the words fall out of my brain before I get a chance to process what I just read. Like I can say all of the words in my head as I read them, but will have forgotten each word within less than a second of reading it. So if I read a paragraph this way, I wouldn't know what the paragraph was about. (sorry if I gave too many examples, I'm afraid of not making myself clear )
However:
I know (pretty much) exactly what I've read (provided I could concentrate properly when reading ) if I make myself read at a more average speed. I think that this is because I'm (sub)consciously making myself remember the info, and can only do this when I'm reading at what is slower than my natural speed.
What I understand from this is: you can read ok, at an average speed, but you are having difficulty reading quickly. In my opinion, that means you do not have a reading disorder. Not everybody can speed-read. Some people are self-taught speed readers but many have to do a little course and practice the skill. For myself I look at the paragraph as a whole, and scan for key words and their connections, until the meaning becomes clear. It is not about trying to remember every single word. I only read a sentence word after word if it is a very important point, or if I didn't grasp it the first time.
Having said that you don't have a reading disorder, I am going to contradict myself and say that if you are mentally gifted in any way, it is really frustrating not to be able to read as quickly as you want to -so in a way, yes there is some reading problem there. However you may be able to overcome it with practice and technique.
But I don't remember any of what I've read if I read quickly. When I can remember (pretty much) everything if I read slower.
I can read very quickly just fine, but not remember anything I've read when I do so. Surely that's not normal?
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An Aspie's habits are incomprehensible to society not because they are illogical or the result of madness, but because they stem from a mind so original that they cannot be seen as societal norms.