Hyperlexia

[Guest guest]

and Donna,

Both of you sound like you are using your child's strength's to let them learn.

was right when he said Maurice told me to use whatever they are

interested in to help them. Before was recovered, he loved anything with

numbers. We used that. He had a number puzzle he loved and each time he did a

speech activity correctly he got piece of the puzzle. When he earned all the

pieces his reward was to get to put the puzzle together. He couldn't speak

conversationally, but could add numbers like a human calculator and at one time

in his life when he was younger knew the room number of every hotel we ever

stayed in.

He was also very interested in street signs, electrical outlets,maps, hotels

and elevators. My husband could always convince him to go with him if he

stopped at a hardware store, a hotel to ride the elevators, or just cruising.

That gave me time to give sole attention to my daughter every Saturday night,

because all the attention was usually spent trying to get better.

In the car never wanted to talk, we had no idea that he was memorizing

every street he ever passed. I have a terrible sense of direction and although

this skill became more normal and less pronounced as he gained more speech, I

still call him when I'm lost. He can always get me home even if I am somewhere

has never been.

In addition, he can draw a map of Europe accurately freehand. I always choose

him as my partner for Trivial Pursuit, because we never miss a Geography

question. So there are advantages to these special skills. Even though we

encouraged them, now that he is recovered, they are in the normal range. It is

not a problem.

Most parents are like I was. They think everything they do or let their child

eat will have a lasting effect and get quite concerned if at Disney their child

has normal food. We were strict with the diet at home, but vacation was

vacation except when it came to dairy. If you by mistake get an offending food

increase the exercise and water intake. On vacation, was always better

because he swam so much which seemed to really help him process.

Relax and don't worry if you do something wrong. Nothing is permanent. I'm a

big talker, but at times still worry. Just recently Dr. G tried to lower 's

dose of Valtrex to twice a day. Over a long period of time we did see a decline

in his alertness and went back to the original dose. I too worried that we

messed him up, but after increasing the dose he is back and as great as ever.

It is hard not to worry, but you need to live a semi-normal life too. Hope

this helps!!!

Marcia Hinds

[Guest guest]

Hi Steve,

We strongly believe our son has Hyperlexia. Our son is 3 years 7 mos. and has

for the most part taught himself to write the alphabet both upper and lower

case, including numbers 1-30. Knows the phonetics of all the letters and

several word examples for each letter, and can read 100 to 140 words on sight.

We suspected something when he was saying and recognizing his alphabet when he

was 18 months old and a strong preoccupation with letters. I would go on the

American Hyperlexic Assoc. web site, if you have'nt already, to get a lot of

interesting info. and if your child has it, you will see an amazing likeness

to these other child who have it.

Pam

---- Original Message -----

From: Steve Dauby

'Nids '

Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 10:40 AM

Subject: Hyperlexia

Does anyone in the group have a child that has been tested for Hyperlexia or

does anyone know of it? I am interesting in learning more about this in

addition to a learning program called fast forward.

thanks

[Guest guest]

My child was not tested for hyperlexia (I didn't even know there was a

test!) but I'm sure he had it... he taught himself to read at age three and

read himself Harry Potter in Kindergarten... the same year he was diagnosed

PPD/NOS.

Caroline

> On 5/16/03 12:40 PM, " Steve Dauby " <sdauby@...> wrote:

> Does anyone in the group have a child that has been tested for Hyperlexia or

> does anyone know of it? I am interesting in learning more about this in

> addition to a learning program called fast forward.

>

>

>

> thanks

[Guest guest]

There is a Hyperlexia organization. You probably can type hyperlexia into your

search engine and find it easily.

All the best~~

Rose

Hyperlexia

Does anyone in the group have a child that has been tested for Hyperlexia or

does anyone know of it? I am interesting in learning more about this in

addition to a learning program called fast forward.

thanks

[Guest guest]

My four year old daughter began pointing to credit card symbols (Visa,

MasterCard etc) and could identify them correctly at 18 months. She learned to

identify her alphabet and numbers up to 20 by 20 months and now at age 4 can

read entire sentences, books and magazines faster than most adults. She loved

books and magnetic letters on the refrigerator but they could be taken away

without a meltdown. It never became a true obsession (unlike vacuum cleaners

We suspected hyperlexia, but the difference (in my understanding) is that my

daughter actually comprehends what she is reading. She is not simply decoding

the sentences she can tell you what she just read. We've spent a good deal of

time trying to understand how she taught herself to read and believe she started

by memorizing sight words and then putting the sight words together. At 2 1/2

(shortly after she spoke her first words) she was shown the flashcard for the

word " each " and she said " ear " " teach " " each. " Now, she has learned phonics and

is sounding out difficult words rather quickly. We're not sure if the constant

access to printed words through both speech therapy and reading has anything to

do with her early reading or if it is more of a result of redirected blood flow

in the brain. I would love to see a study of patients who began reading at

an early age (with or without a hyperlexia diagnosis) which compared Neurospect

scans and other issues.

I've read all the hyperlexia books and visited the website and (as has happened

many times in our research) we see pieces of my daughter in the diagnosis but it

doesn't really seem to fit anymore. No doctor has labeled her hyperlexic, but

we do use some of the techniques (like reading and writing a lot of social

stories.) One of the first red flags that led me to seek help for my daughter

(other than her lack of verbal skills) was her ability to recognize letters and

it remains one of the only traits that separates her from her peers. If anyone

knows a scientific study, connection or explanation, I would love to hear more.

On another note, does anyone have a dx of Celiac disease for their child?

Thanks,

Jen

Hyperlexia

Does anyone in the group have a child that has been tested for Hyperlexia or

does anyone know of it? I am interesting in learning more about this in

addition to a learning program called fast forward.

thanks

[Guest guest]

My son was diagnosed with Hyperlexia when he was 3. He began reading when

he was barely 2 years old and he is now almost 7. One of our major concerns

was that this was a rote skill so we had him tested and found that he was

comprehending what he was reading. He has done extremely well in school (he

never has to study for a spelling test!). His teachers have used his skill

to help him connect with other classmates by letting him read stories to the

class. He still seeks out written material to some degree, however, he is

over his obsession with it. We started the protocol in March and since

then have seen his interests expand even more.

Hyperlexia

> Does anyone in the group have a child that has been tested for Hyperlexia

or

> does anyone know of it? I am interesting in learning more about this in

> addition to a learning program called fast forward.

>

>

>

> thanks

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

This sounds like my son Blake which just turned 5. He has taught himself to

read by watching videos and playing computer games. Obviously his social

skills are very weak but he wants to be around people. It has become clear

that he needs pictures and words to comprehend language. Has anyone in the

group found pictures card/books or other material that have focused on

social settings that he could read and look at pictures.

Re: Hyperlexia

My son was diagnosed with Hyperlexia when he was 3. He began reading when

he was barely 2 years old and he is now almost 7. One of our major concerns

was that this was a rote skill so we had him tested and found that he was

comprehending what he was reading. He has done extremely well in school (he

never has to study for a spelling test!). His teachers have used his skill

to help him connect with other classmates by letting him read stories to the

class. He still seeks out written material to some degree, however, he is

over his obsession with it. We started the protocol in March and since

then have seen his interests expand even more.

[Guest guest]

Steve,

Just a word of caution here... I have found out that comprehending what he

is reading and being able to interpret it are two different things. Our

hyperlexic child did incredibly well (like yours, he is an amazing speller)

as long as the assignments had straight answers, such as in " Name 3 types of

rock which are found in the earth's crust. " or " Diagram all of the body

parts of an ant. " .

We didn't run into much of a problem until our child starting doing work at

the 3rd grade level. We had been warned by a doctor that third grade work

starts becoming more analytical and that some autistic (or ) kids crash

academically when they get to this level. As the kids get older, the

questions begin to require more interpretation. Questions such as " Why did

the boy let his friend pass him and win the race? " or " Why did the boy run

away? " threw our son for a loop because he could no longer provide a rote

answer from the words in the text. The answer was one he had to glean from

things implied in the story. I am happy to report that we are seeing those

skills emerge as our son progresses through the treatments.

I think it's good to ask your kids a lot of " Why do you think? " questions

and then if they get stuck, give them clues until they figure out the answer

or just explain why to them if they can't figure it out.

I hope that your child does not have trouble interpreting what he reads... I

just wanted to mention this because even though we had been warned, it still

came as somewhat of a shock when all of the sudden the reading grades began

to plummet and we had a child in tears at every reading assignment when he

had breezed through before.

Caroline

> On 5/20/03 9:21 AM, " Steve Dauby " <sdauby@...> wrote:

> so we had him tested and found that he was

> comprehending what he was reading.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for info: If I look in my crystal ball this is where we will be also.

Do you know of any training cards / or other items available to start

working on these skills. Knowing what you know now what would you have done

different.

Re: Hyperlexia

Steve,

Just a word of caution here... I have found out that comprehending what he

is reading and being able to interpret it are two different things. Our

hyperlexic child did incredibly well (like yours, he is an amazing speller)

as long as the assignments had straight answers, such as in " Name 3 types of

rock which are found in the earth's crust. " or " Diagram all of the body

parts of an ant. " .

We didn't run into much of a problem until our child starting doing work at

the 3rd grade level. We had been warned by a doctor that third grade work

starts becoming more analytical and that some autistic (or ) kids crash

academically when they get to this level. As the kids get older, the

questions begin to require more interpretation. Questions such as " Why did

the boy let his friend pass him and win the race? " or " Why did the boy run

away? " threw our son for a loop because he could no longer provide a rote

answer from the words in the text. The answer was one he had to glean from

things implied in the story. I am happy to report that we are seeing those

skills emerge as our son progresses through the treatments.

I think it's good to ask your kids a lot of " Why do you think? " questions

and then if they get stuck, give them clues until they figure out the answer

or just explain why to them if they can't figure it out.

I hope that your child does not have trouble interpreting what he reads... I

just wanted to mention this because even though we had been warned, it still

came as somewhat of a shock when all of the sudden the reading grades began

to plummet and we had a child in tears at every reading assignment when he

had breezed through before.

Caroline

> On 5/20/03 9:21 AM, " Steve Dauby " <sdauby@...> wrote:

> so we had him tested and found that he was

> comprehending what he was reading.

Responsibility for the content of this message lies strictly with

the original author, and is not necessarily endorsed by or the

opinion of the Research Institute.