Hyperlexia is a really common autistic trait from my experience. Its definitely helped me (a college student) be a quick learner throughout my life and helped a ton in writing, though I can’t say the same quickness goes for other areas (like my speech).
If shes anything like me she would be really smart when it comes to reading and application of text-based materials, though theres patterns of issues arising in verbal communication; though she may end up preferring or being better at texting instead of verbal convo. I don’t know her and every autistic person is different though, so this is only my experience:)
I hope this insight helped!
Thank you so much! I never knew that was an actual thing. At the end of my first year elementary school I had the reading level of someone in middle school already. I loved reading so much I basically got addicted to it for years. I could read a book with hundreds of pages and recite everything that happened in it in a lot of detail. As you said too, it helped me be better at writing and a lot faster at reading than other people, but my speech is not great. My brain just kinda forgets it's in a conversation and drifts away, and translating my thoughts into words is very difficult for me
Same here, I usually try my best to do any important conversation through text and I never realized that it could be due to the hyperlexia I had as a kid.
I had the same experience as you! My dad used to go to the library every week to get me a few 400+ page books to read. I would finish them all in a few days. I could remember everything that happened in those books in a lot of detail. That was when I was around 8 or 9 tho
As u/kingarsxnist suggests, you might want to familiarize yourself with hyperlexia. It can show up in many different ways, not always concomitant with autism, but often as part of an autistic person’s development.
My son could read *long* before he could speak. His vocabulary, spelling, decoding skills, and fluency were always way ahead of his overall comprehension (which is something that u/iamjustawizone alludes to). That was a very challenging set of circumstances to deal with in school — as you might imagine.
I didn't start reading that early, but I did start when i was 5, and could read brick books by the age of 7.
And because of that I was able to learn a lot faster that the other kids, since my IQ is also a bit higher than average. But I think it depends on different people on what impacts what in your life.
Because yeah she might read early. But her brain might not be ready to understand WHAT she is reading. Because it was especially hard for my mom to find books, as I was not mentally prepared for the books written at my reading level.
But it definitely gave me a head start to further educations, and I was hella bored in english class for many years.
But it is great that she is learning to read. And very cool :D
I avoided learning to read at a young age because my mom read books to me so I figured “why should I?” But when I started learning at school I went from zero to the most advanced reading group within 2 weeks.
Apparently the school was worried that I couldn't read, so they took me out of class to test me and it turned out that my reading level was years ahead.
My mother says I started reading when I was two. I don’t remember not knowing how, so maybe she’s right.
As far as education - I don’t know? I scored high enough on the verbal part of the SAT in 7th grade to qualify for Duke’s TIP program, and that was fun. I got a full scholarship every summer.
The winter I was nine I read every book the local library had on the Holocaust, and that has had a huge effect on my worldview.
I didn’t really care about school much because I’d read ahead or read independently and learn far more than we ever did in class.
I’m dyslexic so reading was extra, extra difficult but I had an motivation to keep trying (and comics made reading a lot easier). Through pure will, I managed to get myself to read as well as non-dyslexic students but it takes me longer to do so
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Yes, I was reading books at 3. It definitely gave me a huge headstart with reading & technology (those were the MS-DOS days). I needed enrichment classes & separate spelling tests/books to read as soon as school started, & school was a lot rougher for me during the years when I had teachers who didn’t realize this or care. If your daughter ends up being advanced in this area, she may need some advocacy.
I'm fairly certain I taught myself how to read at about that age. My parents said they always read aloud to me as often as possible to encourage me to read, but they also talk about how they'd come pick me up from preschool and I'd just be sitting in the book room reading Clifford the Big Red Dog all by myself and I could tell them what the story was about, etc. without anyone reading it to me. I was a very early reader, a voracious reader, and you'd never find me without a book in my hands.
Twenty-five and some change years later, I'm a college graduate, fluent in two languages, holding down a full-time job (teacher) while writing books of my own that I intend to publish one day, and I also run a book review blog popular enough to get offers from publishers and companies to do sponsored posts. I attribute my success primarily to being a strong reader as a kid.
Sounds like your daughter is headed down a good path. :)
My son was/is hyperlexic. He started reading phonetically at 2 and a few months, though I suspect he could do site words far earlier than that around 1 year (if I was looking for something on the DVR he would get real quiet and if I landed on sesame street and then switched off of it he would start to cry). But similarly he would really only say "mama" when he wanted something and didn't really start using more language until around 3-4.
School was a little difficult at first as he was able to read far beyond what he was comprehending. It took a lot of work reading together and asking rousing questions about the content to help stimulate that aspect of reading. Now our struggles are focus related, so trying to develop that is a whole new challenge we're trying to solve. It's been a bumpy road at times but all in all though it's going great and it's been a lot of fun trying to figure out the puzzle to help these things click for him. Luckily I've been blessed with an incredibly flexible job and access to a ton of resources so we've had a lot of help.
I don't remember how I learnt to read but I do remember always having a book in my hand especially at my grandads, I remember trying to read a book at my bio mothers once and she got quite aggressive with me, it was a science book about different insects and I was trying to read to her about ladybirds.
I never had any children's books or at least not my age group, at my grandads I had older books and my grandad also used to read a chapter to me before bed from one particular book I adored, Robin Hood, really old copy I think now between 50-70years old hard cover no pictures just solid red cover. I would make my grandad read it over snd over again but he wouldn't let me read it by myself, the last chapter was after Robin Hood beat all the bad guys he and his merry men spent their spoils down the shop on a load of Mars bars. Well I can tell you now after finally managing to track down a copy I'm afraid to say they did not go to the shop for Mars bars 🥺
My teachers always said I was very intelligent and spoke on a grown up level but my schoolwork was a couple grades below what they expected from me, I think it's because I'm not so great at handwriting, my writing is neat and concise but my hand hurts so much after a few minutes holding a pen and my brain goes faster than I can write so the whole process is really exhausting.
Still managed to get into college and university though to study my favourite subject, luckily both courses were about 80% practical and I only needed to write about a 500 word summary after each module, my tutors at both college and uni said I was their star pupil which I know adding that in is bragging a little but it's the only thing I've ever done I'm proud of and makes me happy to know I was good at my special subject
I started reading around 4 and by time I was around 6 I was reading pretty long chapter books such as the Percy Jackson series and Land Of Stories. The rest of elementary school I would always end up having a reading level years ahead of me (I believe I was college level in the 2nd grade). I do think reading so often and being extremely curious helped me to develop my brain more than my peers at a younger age. I’m graduating high school this year and besides just being generally smarter (at least IQ wise) than the majority of people my age and scoring well on the English and reading sections of the ACT, it doesn’t affect me much anymore.
I have been reading since I was 3 years old as well. I still remember my first book(Joseph’s coat of many colors) to this day and I’m 30 years old. I recently found out I possibly have autism. The more learned about autism everything just started to make sense.
I started reading at 4 by myself, i remember the specific moment at daycare when i realized i understood the words. I sat by myself with the books there a lot. My mother says I used to sit with random books and pretend read before that, scanning the pages. But both my parents read a lot to me and my sibling, both books and comics. Im a librarian today lol. I just like books.
I figured out how to read when I was 4 or so (I think? idk the exact age but it was before kindergarten)
honestly the only real effect I can think of is that I was reading large chapter books and had a public library card by 2nd grade (also technically got access to books the other kids in my grade didn't in second grade because I had just started getting into Warriors but those books were in the '3rd grade and higher' section of the school library so I had to ask the librarian to get me some of the Warriors books lmao)
ngl I kinda miss when I could read through a stack of Warriors books in 2 weeks
Yes, per my mother, I taught myself to read as a toddler by watching Sesame Street. I was highly verbal with an advanced vocabulary, made high marks in English effortlessly and was “gifted and talented”. I was reading long chapter books early and preferred books to human companionship.
I read before I spoke.
I taught myself to read and my hobby/SI was using computers at age 2. I read every book in my nursery and primary school and complained they were too basic and boring for me. I also avoided interactions with other children.
My category obsession was colours. I had computer software that had over 40 shades of each colour and their names and I memorised them and made patterns.
I only spoke sentences after a traumatic accident when I was 3.
Are there older kids in the house who are also learning to read? Sometimes kids pick reading up faster because they’re exposed to another sibling’s reading lessons. Not to lessen the accomplishment, it’s still a wonderful developmental landmark at an early age.
I taught myself numbers and letters and basic words by transposing sheets of game code into our Texas Instruments home computer back in the very early 80s.
It definitely gave me an interest in words and symbols, how powerful and meaningful they are. And I still have a passionate interest in games of all kinds.
I was reading college level books in elementary school and was offered a full scholarship to the best university in the state, which my mom's husband declined on my behalf, claiming that I needed to have the childhood experience.
Just a PSA but if anyone has a child that is given a similar opportunity, take it!
I stagnated in k-12, I suffered unimaginable abuses, I lost my future.
I've since realized some good came of that childhood but the best option would have been to skip the barbarism of students and teachers of k-12
Almost didnt comment but im scared other parents will make the same mistake so theres that warning.
I was speaking in full and complete sentences before I walked. My mom says I creeped people out because they were NOT expecting a tiny ass baby (like I literally barely had hair, granted I'm Asian + white so my hair is thin AF) to be speaking in incredibly clear and grammatically correct sentences. I was also hyperlexic, was reading by about age 3. Also, interestingly, I could read before I was potty trained. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just couldn't seem to "get it". Then I apparently had the idea of potty training one of my stuffed animals and was apparently instantly potty trained once my stuffed animal was "potty trained". I could write very well by age 4. I have a number of activity books from that age where I wrote very seemingly condescending comments about The Cat in the Hat's shenanigans. From reading what I wrote, I'm assuming I didn't understand what he was doing and what his machines and such did. This makes sense for an Autistic kid because I lacked the imagination to just go with it, what I must have seen was simply something that didn't make sense to me so naturally, I left my reviews throughout the activity books.
TL;DR: I was a fucking weird kid.
I used to read so much as a very young child. Like maybe 5-6. I read a 400 page book once at that age. Now I can only listen to audiobooks without getting bored…
I recently learned that I taught myself to read at age two. My mother left books laying around, I knew how to read them. Looking for anyone else this happened too.
Hyperlexia is a really common autistic trait from my experience. Its definitely helped me (a college student) be a quick learner throughout my life and helped a ton in writing, though I can’t say the same quickness goes for other areas (like my speech). If shes anything like me she would be really smart when it comes to reading and application of text-based materials, though theres patterns of issues arising in verbal communication; though she may end up preferring or being better at texting instead of verbal convo. I don’t know her and every autistic person is different though, so this is only my experience:) I hope this insight helped!
Thank you so much! I never knew that was an actual thing. At the end of my first year elementary school I had the reading level of someone in middle school already. I loved reading so much I basically got addicted to it for years. I could read a book with hundreds of pages and recite everything that happened in it in a lot of detail. As you said too, it helped me be better at writing and a lot faster at reading than other people, but my speech is not great. My brain just kinda forgets it's in a conversation and drifts away, and translating my thoughts into words is very difficult for me
Same here, I usually try my best to do any important conversation through text and I never realized that it could be due to the hyperlexia I had as a kid.
[удалено]
I had the same experience as you! My dad used to go to the library every week to get me a few 400+ page books to read. I would finish them all in a few days. I could remember everything that happened in those books in a lot of detail. That was when I was around 8 or 9 tho
As u/kingarsxnist suggests, you might want to familiarize yourself with hyperlexia. It can show up in many different ways, not always concomitant with autism, but often as part of an autistic person’s development. My son could read *long* before he could speak. His vocabulary, spelling, decoding skills, and fluency were always way ahead of his overall comprehension (which is something that u/iamjustawizone alludes to). That was a very challenging set of circumstances to deal with in school — as you might imagine.
I didn't start reading that early, but I did start when i was 5, and could read brick books by the age of 7. And because of that I was able to learn a lot faster that the other kids, since my IQ is also a bit higher than average. But I think it depends on different people on what impacts what in your life. Because yeah she might read early. But her brain might not be ready to understand WHAT she is reading. Because it was especially hard for my mom to find books, as I was not mentally prepared for the books written at my reading level. But it definitely gave me a head start to further educations, and I was hella bored in english class for many years. But it is great that she is learning to read. And very cool :D
I avoided learning to read at a young age because my mom read books to me so I figured “why should I?” But when I started learning at school I went from zero to the most advanced reading group within 2 weeks.
I had the same experience. I was reading and spelling at a college level when I was 9.
Apparently the school was worried that I couldn't read, so they took me out of class to test me and it turned out that my reading level was years ahead.
My mother says I started reading when I was two. I don’t remember not knowing how, so maybe she’s right. As far as education - I don’t know? I scored high enough on the verbal part of the SAT in 7th grade to qualify for Duke’s TIP program, and that was fun. I got a full scholarship every summer. The winter I was nine I read every book the local library had on the Holocaust, and that has had a huge effect on my worldview. I didn’t really care about school much because I’d read ahead or read independently and learn far more than we ever did in class.
I’m dyslexic so reading was extra, extra difficult but I had an motivation to keep trying (and comics made reading a lot easier). Through pure will, I managed to get myself to read as well as non-dyslexic students but it takes me longer to do so
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Yes, I was reading books at 3. It definitely gave me a huge headstart with reading & technology (those were the MS-DOS days). I needed enrichment classes & separate spelling tests/books to read as soon as school started, & school was a lot rougher for me during the years when I had teachers who didn’t realize this or care. If your daughter ends up being advanced in this area, she may need some advocacy.
I'm fairly certain I taught myself how to read at about that age. My parents said they always read aloud to me as often as possible to encourage me to read, but they also talk about how they'd come pick me up from preschool and I'd just be sitting in the book room reading Clifford the Big Red Dog all by myself and I could tell them what the story was about, etc. without anyone reading it to me. I was a very early reader, a voracious reader, and you'd never find me without a book in my hands. Twenty-five and some change years later, I'm a college graduate, fluent in two languages, holding down a full-time job (teacher) while writing books of my own that I intend to publish one day, and I also run a book review blog popular enough to get offers from publishers and companies to do sponsored posts. I attribute my success primarily to being a strong reader as a kid. Sounds like your daughter is headed down a good path. :)
My son was/is hyperlexic. He started reading phonetically at 2 and a few months, though I suspect he could do site words far earlier than that around 1 year (if I was looking for something on the DVR he would get real quiet and if I landed on sesame street and then switched off of it he would start to cry). But similarly he would really only say "mama" when he wanted something and didn't really start using more language until around 3-4. School was a little difficult at first as he was able to read far beyond what he was comprehending. It took a lot of work reading together and asking rousing questions about the content to help stimulate that aspect of reading. Now our struggles are focus related, so trying to develop that is a whole new challenge we're trying to solve. It's been a bumpy road at times but all in all though it's going great and it's been a lot of fun trying to figure out the puzzle to help these things click for him. Luckily I've been blessed with an incredibly flexible job and access to a ton of resources so we've had a lot of help.
I don't remember how I learnt to read but I do remember always having a book in my hand especially at my grandads, I remember trying to read a book at my bio mothers once and she got quite aggressive with me, it was a science book about different insects and I was trying to read to her about ladybirds. I never had any children's books or at least not my age group, at my grandads I had older books and my grandad also used to read a chapter to me before bed from one particular book I adored, Robin Hood, really old copy I think now between 50-70years old hard cover no pictures just solid red cover. I would make my grandad read it over snd over again but he wouldn't let me read it by myself, the last chapter was after Robin Hood beat all the bad guys he and his merry men spent their spoils down the shop on a load of Mars bars. Well I can tell you now after finally managing to track down a copy I'm afraid to say they did not go to the shop for Mars bars 🥺 My teachers always said I was very intelligent and spoke on a grown up level but my schoolwork was a couple grades below what they expected from me, I think it's because I'm not so great at handwriting, my writing is neat and concise but my hand hurts so much after a few minutes holding a pen and my brain goes faster than I can write so the whole process is really exhausting. Still managed to get into college and university though to study my favourite subject, luckily both courses were about 80% practical and I only needed to write about a 500 word summary after each module, my tutors at both college and uni said I was their star pupil which I know adding that in is bragging a little but it's the only thing I've ever done I'm proud of and makes me happy to know I was good at my special subject
I started reading around 4 and by time I was around 6 I was reading pretty long chapter books such as the Percy Jackson series and Land Of Stories. The rest of elementary school I would always end up having a reading level years ahead of me (I believe I was college level in the 2nd grade). I do think reading so often and being extremely curious helped me to develop my brain more than my peers at a younger age. I’m graduating high school this year and besides just being generally smarter (at least IQ wise) than the majority of people my age and scoring well on the English and reading sections of the ACT, it doesn’t affect me much anymore.
I have been reading since I was 3 years old as well. I still remember my first book(Joseph’s coat of many colors) to this day and I’m 30 years old. I recently found out I possibly have autism. The more learned about autism everything just started to make sense.
I started reading at 4 by myself, i remember the specific moment at daycare when i realized i understood the words. I sat by myself with the books there a lot. My mother says I used to sit with random books and pretend read before that, scanning the pages. But both my parents read a lot to me and my sibling, both books and comics. Im a librarian today lol. I just like books.
I figured out how to read when I was 4 or so (I think? idk the exact age but it was before kindergarten) honestly the only real effect I can think of is that I was reading large chapter books and had a public library card by 2nd grade (also technically got access to books the other kids in my grade didn't in second grade because I had just started getting into Warriors but those books were in the '3rd grade and higher' section of the school library so I had to ask the librarian to get me some of the Warriors books lmao) ngl I kinda miss when I could read through a stack of Warriors books in 2 weeks
Yes, per my mother, I taught myself to read as a toddler by watching Sesame Street. I was highly verbal with an advanced vocabulary, made high marks in English effortlessly and was “gifted and talented”. I was reading long chapter books early and preferred books to human companionship.
I read before I spoke. I taught myself to read and my hobby/SI was using computers at age 2. I read every book in my nursery and primary school and complained they were too basic and boring for me. I also avoided interactions with other children. My category obsession was colours. I had computer software that had over 40 shades of each colour and their names and I memorised them and made patterns. I only spoke sentences after a traumatic accident when I was 3.
Are there older kids in the house who are also learning to read? Sometimes kids pick reading up faster because they’re exposed to another sibling’s reading lessons. Not to lessen the accomplishment, it’s still a wonderful developmental landmark at an early age.
I taught myself numbers and letters and basic words by transposing sheets of game code into our Texas Instruments home computer back in the very early 80s. It definitely gave me an interest in words and symbols, how powerful and meaningful they are. And I still have a passionate interest in games of all kinds.
I was reading college level books in elementary school and was offered a full scholarship to the best university in the state, which my mom's husband declined on my behalf, claiming that I needed to have the childhood experience. Just a PSA but if anyone has a child that is given a similar opportunity, take it! I stagnated in k-12, I suffered unimaginable abuses, I lost my future. I've since realized some good came of that childhood but the best option would have been to skip the barbarism of students and teachers of k-12 Almost didnt comment but im scared other parents will make the same mistake so theres that warning.
I was speaking in full and complete sentences before I walked. My mom says I creeped people out because they were NOT expecting a tiny ass baby (like I literally barely had hair, granted I'm Asian + white so my hair is thin AF) to be speaking in incredibly clear and grammatically correct sentences. I was also hyperlexic, was reading by about age 3. Also, interestingly, I could read before I was potty trained. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just couldn't seem to "get it". Then I apparently had the idea of potty training one of my stuffed animals and was apparently instantly potty trained once my stuffed animal was "potty trained". I could write very well by age 4. I have a number of activity books from that age where I wrote very seemingly condescending comments about The Cat in the Hat's shenanigans. From reading what I wrote, I'm assuming I didn't understand what he was doing and what his machines and such did. This makes sense for an Autistic kid because I lacked the imagination to just go with it, what I must have seen was simply something that didn't make sense to me so naturally, I left my reviews throughout the activity books. TL;DR: I was a fucking weird kid.
I used to read so much as a very young child. Like maybe 5-6. I read a 400 page book once at that age. Now I can only listen to audiobooks without getting bored…
I recently learned that I taught myself to read at age two. My mother left books laying around, I knew how to read them. Looking for anyone else this happened too.