What is Hyperlexia?

Hyperlexia is a syndrome observed in children who have the following characteristics:

• A precocious ability to read words above what is expected at their chronological age
  
  
• An intense fascination with letters or numbers
  
  
• Significant difficulty understanding verbal language
  
  
• Poor social skills
  
  
• Difficulty socializing and interacting appropriately with others
  
  

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In addition, some children who are hyperlexic may exhibit the following characteristics:

• Learn expressive language in a peculiar way
  
  
• Echo to memorize sentence structure without understanding meaning (echolalia)
  
  
• Reverse pronouns
  
  
• Rarely initiates conversations
  
  
• An intense need to keep to routines
  
  
• Difficulty with transitions
  
  
• Ritualistic behavior
  
  
• Auditory, olfactory and / or tactile sensitivity
  
  
• Self-stimulatory behavior
  
  
• Specific, unusual fears
  
  
• Normal development until 18-24 months, then regression
  
  
• Strong auditory and visual memory
  
  
• Difficulty answering "Wh--" questions, such as "what," "where," "who," and "why"
  
  
• Thinking in concrete and literal terms
  
  
• Difficulty with abstract concepts
  
  
• Listens selectively, appears to be deaf
  

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How is Hyperlexia Defined?

Hyperlexia has characteristics similar to autism, behavior disorder, language disorder, emotional disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, hearing impairment, giftedness or, paradoxically, mental retardation.

To develop effective teaching strategies and more typical childhood development, it is important to differentiate Hyperlexia from other disorders. Thorough psychological evaluation by a psychologist who is familiar with the syndrome of Hyperlexia is a crucial first step. Hearing, neurological, psychiatric, blood chemistry, speech and language and genetic evaluations can be performed to rule out other disorders but are not needed to identify Hyperlexia.

What can be done?

• The future of a hyperlexic child depends on his/her developing language expression and comprehension skills.
  
  
• Intensive speech and language therapy and early intervention programs geared for the child with Non-Verbal Learning Disorders can help achieve this objective.
  
  
• The child's reading skills should be used as the primary means of developing language facility.
  
  
• It is important to teach the child appropriate social skills.
  
  
• Providing opportunities for the child to interact with children whose behavior is more socially appropriate is important.
  

Hyperlexia Network Sites

• American Hyperlexia Association
  
  

• The Hyperlexia Parent's Page
  
  

• History of Hyperlexia
  
  

• The Hyperlexia List Serve
   

• American Hyperlexia Association
  Your first stop on the road to success! This Association has offered incredible help, knowledge, treatment ideas, inspirational stories, and more! Make sure you sign the guestbook, and let them know you heard about them here!
   
• Semantic Pragmatic Disorder Web Page
  Information on semantic pragmatic disorder, central auditory processing disorder, and other overlapping conditions.
   

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  Suggestions for Further Reading

   

• Dyslexia and Hyperlexia:  Diagnosis and Management of Developmental Reading Disabilities by P.G. Aaron (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994)
  
  

• Reading Too Soon: How to Understand and Help the Hyperlexic Child by Susan Martins Miller (Center for Speech and Language Disorders, 1993)

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Last modified: January 03, 2008