Child with autism,profound Apraxia and Hyperlexia was Autistic child with math ability

[Guest guest]

Kim and group,

Except for the math abilities,which sound like those of the Hoffman

character in Rainman,this child sounds like my 15 YO son Colin with the dual

dx/autism and spastic diplegia. Colin is nonverbal but communicates well using

a combination of typing and SEE. We added SEE when he was 9YO after attending

Vince Carbone Workshop #1 in Madison in March 2000. Prior to that I had

attempted to teach Colin some ASL and he failed to learn it. In retrospect,I

did not know how to teach Colin. I learned how to teach SEE from the workshop

and Colin learned it quickly.

,Colin P's mom

[ ] Autistic child with math ability

Hi

>

> We are working with a 5 years old boy who has autism and apraxia.

Recently we discovered that he has special math ability. It started

out with simple addition and moves on quickly to substraction,

multiplication, division (even with remainder) or any combinations

of them. He

understands the ideas of equations, fractions, decimals. His rate

of computation is fast, it takes him seconds to do computation up to

7 digits. Since apraxia limits his ability to communicate his

answers, we have been using the multiple choice method and he just

point to the answers. In term of his cognitive, he knows so much

more than he can communicate. He has been progress very quickly

with his sight reading program and can answer almost every questions

in either multiple choice format or picking out the right words.

(typed, cut out words).

We do not have any previous experience working with a child like

this. So we would love to have your input in what do we do at this

point in term of who have expertise in this area (can evaluate him

and customize his ABA/educational program. We live in Northern

California but willing to travel anywhere in the US), is there a

school out there teaching autistic, apraxic children with special

ability, what does it mean in term of his long term prognosis, does

this mean he will have a better chance to " recover " , does his math

ability relates to other abilities such as computer, engineering,

etc... (something that will help him get a job and live an

independent life). We have so many questions and hope that some of

you may have had the chance to work with, or hear about a similar

cases and can give us some insight into this case. All your inputs

are greatly appreciated. You can email us directly if you prefer

Thanks,

Kim