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Hyperlexia is the highly developed ability to recognize words with little or no comprehension of them. It occurs mostly when a child spontaneously and precociously masters single-word reading. It can be viewed as a superability in which word recognition ability goes far above expected levels of skill. The more common definition also includes difficulties with comprehension of printed material beyond or even at the single-word level. Many hyperlexics also have trouble understanding speech.^[1] Most or perhaps all children with hyperlexia also lie on the autism spectrum.^[1] and they share the high verbal ability of Asperger syndrome.

Hyperlexia was first named and scientifically described in 1967.^[2]

Contents 1 Developmental 2 Acquired 3 Notes 4 External links

[edit] Developmental

Hyperlexic children are often fascinated by letters or numbers. They are extremely good at decoding language and thus often become very early readers. Some hyperlexic children learn to spell long words (such as elephant) before they are two years old and learn to read whole sentences before they turn three. An fMRI study of a single child showed that hyperlexia may be the neurological opposite of dyslexia.^[3]

Despite hyperlexic children's precocious reading ability, they may struggle to communicate. Often, hyperlexic children will have a precocious ability to read but will learn to speak only by rote and heavy repetition, and may also have difficulty learning the rules of language from examples or from trial and error, which may result in social problems. Their language may develop using echolalia, often repeating words and sentences. Often, the child has a large vocabulary and can identify many objects and pictures, but cannot put their language skills to good use. Spontaneous language is lacking and their pragmatic speech is delayed. Hyperlexic children often struggle with Who? What? Where? Why? and How? questions. Between the ages of 4 and 5 years old, many children make great strides in communicating.

The social skills of a child with hyperlexia often lag tremendously. Hyperlexic children often have far less interest in playing with other children than do their peers.

[edit] Acquired

Although it is generally associated with autism or related conditions, Hyperlexia can occur following diffuse brain damage, bilateral brain lesions, and focal unilateral stroke of left anterior cingulate cortex and corpus callosum.^[4] In such cases, it has been explained as due to faulty inhibition of preexisting essentially intact reading subroutines.^[4]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• American Hyperlexia Association

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