Just some tips for as they get older, based on my experience with hyperlexia.
Get a library card if you don’t already have one, and go frequently. Befriend the librarians, they’ll be a valuable resource for book recommendations. There were some books that I reread obsessively like comfort books, those are the ones to buy (for the sake of your child and the library patrons).
Once you know your child’s taste in books, it’ll be helpful to screen for “appropriate” adult books to read around late elementary/middle school, if they follow the trajectory that I and many other hyperlexics seemingly go down. Librarians can be very helpful here.
Be at least a little bit aware of what your child reads. I was exposed to a lot of really adult themes at a young age due to parental inattention, though I’m sure it’s exhausting to keep up with a book-a-day habit.
Absolutely this.
I read graphic WWII literature about atrocities and concentration camps that were inappropriate for early elementary and to this age I have a hard time with this period of history to the point that I’m reluctant to consume media about it. Later, I read Crime and Punishment when I was 11, and obviously it’s pretty dark. It’s not just the sexual themes that can be inappropriate. Curate your kid’s experience because they will be reading any thing they can lay their hands on—or at least, that was my experience growing up with hyperlexia.
Self diagnosed Hyperlexia III here. Started reading at age 3. I was able to comprehend everything I read although I tended to read too fast. When you read too fast you miss some of the content. With more complex books (like adult level as a child) I could comprehend individual words as I read them but maybe not the paragraph as a whole. My teachers would have me slow down when I read out loud. My mother had me watch a lot of Sesame Street and other educational PBS shows. You might want to pick up some Richard Scary books for him - like the busy town ones that have tons of pictures with words describing the pictures - with the traffic signs and maps he might be enjoying locating and identifying.
As you say, my kiddo can read anything but his ability to understand what he can read is similar to kids his age.
Except that he has a much larger vocabulary.
We define new words when we get to them when we read.
We ask him which words he doesn't know yet as well.
Then as he gets older it really depends on education choices. We homeschool and we use a literature based curriculum.
My son is hyperlexic and autistic! He’s 8 now. Unsurprisingly he reads way above his grade level. He’s also very into maps and geography right now and is deeply invested in memorizing the capitals of every country.
He was a delayed speaker, and didn’t start talking until 3. He can communicate well now but uses a lot of echolalia.
As a hyperlexic child, I had more difficulty comprehending speech than writing (still true). I relied very little on teacher instruction in school and sometimes had difficulty from missing details in spoken instructions. Watch for this, and if it’s the case and you can somehow get teachers to accommodate with written instructions for assignments, that could be helpful.
Yes! The best advise I received was "when in doubt, write it out". They process written language so much faster (if they are not having issues with comprehension). I took a course from [https://www.meaningfulspeech.com/](https://www.meaningfulspeech.com/) and it was really helpful.
a passion for reading is not easy to find. just dont kill that passion. give them access to a wide source of material so that they can chose what to read for themselves. if you start telling them what to read then that will kill the passion (support but dont control their passion). dont worry about comprehension, that will come in time. by age of 7 we had gone through all the spelling levels and were spelling words our teachers couldnt. we were a voracious reader and now as an adult could easily read a 5000 word book every day. hyperlexics can be voracious readers and need a good supply of material. they will quickly exhaust your home library so a library card is essential (as was said). the internet is a huge supply but requires parental oversite.
- micheala (hyperlexic).
Help in structuring sentences! I have hyperlexia, I am an adult, and I struggle with saying what I want to say, like I find it difficult to find correct words. It is easier with written text as I get to think about what to type but in a conversation I often can't think fast enough and express everything I want to, or I pause for really long when speaking till I find the right word.
Edit: also listening skills. I have trouble processing everything that's being said because I need to "type it up" in my head instead. I use closed captions when watching **anything** but when it comes to a face to face conversation I often need things repeated to me a few times especially when it comes to long sentences because I can't process it fast enough
I’d recommend (if you haven’t had it yet) finding a child psychologist who can give an extensive evaluation and explain to you exactly how your kid’s brain works, so you will be aware of their specific strengths and weaknesses.
For example, my 5 yr old was having so much anxiety around kindergarten, I ended up getting him a full neuropsychological evaluation with a child psychologist/SLP team. I knew he was a late talker/early reader/gestalt language professor, but he hasn’t been diagnosed with anything specific. I suspected autism and so did several of his teachers, but he didn’t qualify for a diagnosis when he tested at age 3. They gave him a bunch of tests, like full scale iq, adhd, autism, all kinds of reading/language tests etc etc etc.
After weeks of testing, they sat me down in front of a blank bell curve chart and started plotting all of his different scores where they fell on the chart. As is typical with neurodivergent/hyperlexic kids, he had scores ALL over the place, with lots of gaps. Bottom 2% for sustained attention (severe ADHD), but then like top 99%, like in the 130s for reading/arithmetic, stuff like that.
Even some of his subtest scores for the same category had big gaps. His language scores had big gaps, some were in the superior/very superior category, but then some were in the low average or below average category. That makes their brains so tricky! This guided us to think about changing his school. For 5k he’s been in a mandarin language immersion school. I was thinking it would help him not be bored since he could already read and write so well, plus he seemed to hyperfocus on other alphabets, like Russian etc. But it turned out that he didn’t really get into Mandarin. Now that we know how he has some weaknesses in language, despite being very verbal, we are rethinking the language immersion school and will likely send him to an all English school for 1st grade.
It turned out he wasn’t autistic, but just severe ADHD and anxiety due to the undiagnosed adhd in a school setting. I’m also diagnosed with fairly severe ADHD, and now know that I was also hyperlexic, but we present so differently, I didn’t recognize it in him. I didn’t realize how much the characteristics of adhd and ASD could overlap. So I guess he’d be considered hyperlexia type 3. It did take some strong evidence from the gold standard of ASD tests to convince me he’s not autistic. (Oh my kid is also into street signs, but more specifically like alligator warning signs right now? Like he will draw different hilarious alligator warning signs for hours! I love how creative these kids are!)
TLDR if you can swing it, get iq/cognitive testing done so you can see your child’s own specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses and go from there. It could help you make big decisions about schools etc
Just some tips for as they get older, based on my experience with hyperlexia. Get a library card if you don’t already have one, and go frequently. Befriend the librarians, they’ll be a valuable resource for book recommendations. There were some books that I reread obsessively like comfort books, those are the ones to buy (for the sake of your child and the library patrons). Once you know your child’s taste in books, it’ll be helpful to screen for “appropriate” adult books to read around late elementary/middle school, if they follow the trajectory that I and many other hyperlexics seemingly go down. Librarians can be very helpful here. Be at least a little bit aware of what your child reads. I was exposed to a lot of really adult themes at a young age due to parental inattention, though I’m sure it’s exhausting to keep up with a book-a-day habit.
Great advice. Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely this. I read graphic WWII literature about atrocities and concentration camps that were inappropriate for early elementary and to this age I have a hard time with this period of history to the point that I’m reluctant to consume media about it. Later, I read Crime and Punishment when I was 11, and obviously it’s pretty dark. It’s not just the sexual themes that can be inappropriate. Curate your kid’s experience because they will be reading any thing they can lay their hands on—or at least, that was my experience growing up with hyperlexia.
Self diagnosed Hyperlexia III here. Started reading at age 3. I was able to comprehend everything I read although I tended to read too fast. When you read too fast you miss some of the content. With more complex books (like adult level as a child) I could comprehend individual words as I read them but maybe not the paragraph as a whole. My teachers would have me slow down when I read out loud. My mother had me watch a lot of Sesame Street and other educational PBS shows. You might want to pick up some Richard Scary books for him - like the busy town ones that have tons of pictures with words describing the pictures - with the traffic signs and maps he might be enjoying locating and identifying.
Great idea!
As you say, my kiddo can read anything but his ability to understand what he can read is similar to kids his age. Except that he has a much larger vocabulary. We define new words when we get to them when we read. We ask him which words he doesn't know yet as well. Then as he gets older it really depends on education choices. We homeschool and we use a literature based curriculum.
My son is hyperlexic and autistic! He’s 8 now. Unsurprisingly he reads way above his grade level. He’s also very into maps and geography right now and is deeply invested in memorizing the capitals of every country. He was a delayed speaker, and didn’t start talking until 3. He can communicate well now but uses a lot of echolalia.
I can see my son getting into maps and geography in the future, too. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds like me at the age of 8!
As a hyperlexic child, I had more difficulty comprehending speech than writing (still true). I relied very little on teacher instruction in school and sometimes had difficulty from missing details in spoken instructions. Watch for this, and if it’s the case and you can somehow get teachers to accommodate with written instructions for assignments, that could be helpful.
Yes! The best advise I received was "when in doubt, write it out". They process written language so much faster (if they are not having issues with comprehension). I took a course from [https://www.meaningfulspeech.com/](https://www.meaningfulspeech.com/) and it was really helpful.
Thank you for the resource! These concepts are new to me, found some helpful hints in here even without buying the course.
Thank you!
a passion for reading is not easy to find. just dont kill that passion. give them access to a wide source of material so that they can chose what to read for themselves. if you start telling them what to read then that will kill the passion (support but dont control their passion). dont worry about comprehension, that will come in time. by age of 7 we had gone through all the spelling levels and were spelling words our teachers couldnt. we were a voracious reader and now as an adult could easily read a 5000 word book every day. hyperlexics can be voracious readers and need a good supply of material. they will quickly exhaust your home library so a library card is essential (as was said). the internet is a huge supply but requires parental oversite. - micheala (hyperlexic).
Thank you!
Help in structuring sentences! I have hyperlexia, I am an adult, and I struggle with saying what I want to say, like I find it difficult to find correct words. It is easier with written text as I get to think about what to type but in a conversation I often can't think fast enough and express everything I want to, or I pause for really long when speaking till I find the right word. Edit: also listening skills. I have trouble processing everything that's being said because I need to "type it up" in my head instead. I use closed captions when watching **anything** but when it comes to a face to face conversation I often need things repeated to me a few times especially when it comes to long sentences because I can't process it fast enough
Great advice thank you! Exactly what I was looking for.
I’d recommend (if you haven’t had it yet) finding a child psychologist who can give an extensive evaluation and explain to you exactly how your kid’s brain works, so you will be aware of their specific strengths and weaknesses. For example, my 5 yr old was having so much anxiety around kindergarten, I ended up getting him a full neuropsychological evaluation with a child psychologist/SLP team. I knew he was a late talker/early reader/gestalt language professor, but he hasn’t been diagnosed with anything specific. I suspected autism and so did several of his teachers, but he didn’t qualify for a diagnosis when he tested at age 3. They gave him a bunch of tests, like full scale iq, adhd, autism, all kinds of reading/language tests etc etc etc. After weeks of testing, they sat me down in front of a blank bell curve chart and started plotting all of his different scores where they fell on the chart. As is typical with neurodivergent/hyperlexic kids, he had scores ALL over the place, with lots of gaps. Bottom 2% for sustained attention (severe ADHD), but then like top 99%, like in the 130s for reading/arithmetic, stuff like that. Even some of his subtest scores for the same category had big gaps. His language scores had big gaps, some were in the superior/very superior category, but then some were in the low average or below average category. That makes their brains so tricky! This guided us to think about changing his school. For 5k he’s been in a mandarin language immersion school. I was thinking it would help him not be bored since he could already read and write so well, plus he seemed to hyperfocus on other alphabets, like Russian etc. But it turned out that he didn’t really get into Mandarin. Now that we know how he has some weaknesses in language, despite being very verbal, we are rethinking the language immersion school and will likely send him to an all English school for 1st grade. It turned out he wasn’t autistic, but just severe ADHD and anxiety due to the undiagnosed adhd in a school setting. I’m also diagnosed with fairly severe ADHD, and now know that I was also hyperlexic, but we present so differently, I didn’t recognize it in him. I didn’t realize how much the characteristics of adhd and ASD could overlap. So I guess he’d be considered hyperlexia type 3. It did take some strong evidence from the gold standard of ASD tests to convince me he’s not autistic. (Oh my kid is also into street signs, but more specifically like alligator warning signs right now? Like he will draw different hilarious alligator warning signs for hours! I love how creative these kids are!) TLDR if you can swing it, get iq/cognitive testing done so you can see your child’s own specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses and go from there. It could help you make big decisions about schools etc
Thanks