Hyperlexia Support Group

Hi, just read your post and your son sounds alot like mine. My son Chase is 3 1/2 years old and was diagnosed as having PDD/NOS at around 2 years old. Well that quickly changed to Hyperlexia as I took him to be evaluated by more specialists. Chase has always been fasinated with numbers, letters, colors. He had all of his ABC's memorized by 22 months and could count to 30 by then too. He could also identify these too which really shocked the dr.'s. He started teaching himself his ABC's & numbers on the computer keyboard not long after he started walking. He would just stand over by the computer and push on the letter keys forever. He also memorized most of his cartoon videos. He loves puzzles and is now doing a 100 piece puzzles - very quickly. He loves the USA Map - he's starting to memorizes all of his states. Chase can tell you who's on Mount Rushmoore - So I need to go and get him some president flash cards now I guess. He tends to tell me how to get to school and other palces. He has the greatest memory - If I lose something around the house he tends to find it. He loves to look at books and has memorized some words. But like other times he will memorize something before I know he know it. He pretty much teaches himself alot without me realizing it. As an infant I did notice he was fascinated by the credits after a movie was over - that was his favorite part. And of course he loves billboards and signs with big words on store buildings. Alot of regular dr.'s don't know very much about Hyperlexia and will put these children in the Autsim Spectrum - since Hyperlexic children do have some of the same characteristics as children with Autism. For example hyperlexic children don't have the greatest communication skills - unless of course they want to talk about letters or numbers and children with Autism tend to not communicate well. But, Hyperlexic children usually start communicating better around age 4 or 5 and I can see this already with my son - who will be 4 in June.
I think alot of pediatricians need more education about autism, hyperleia, etc. The 1st time I took Chase to see his Dr. about this at 2 she siad within 10 minutes she thought he had autism. So, I went and enrolled chase in Parents As Teachers where a teacher would come t the house and evaluate and play with Chase once a month - this teacher thought it was crazy that the Dr. thought Chase was Autistic. I also enrolled Chase into the 1st Steps Program and a Speech therapist would come to the house 1x per week and work with Chase. She also thought his Dr. was wrong about the ASD diagnosis. I have also taken Chase to a Neurologist at St. Lukes is St Louis.
A Dr. at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neuroligical Disorders finally agreed with me about the Hyperlexia. Luckily I read alot and thats the way I found out about it. But she still kept the PDD/Nos diagnosis along with the Hyperlexia since most schools will not see Hyperlexia as a learning disablity - because they have no idea what it is usually. But now Chase is in Pre-school for children with learning diabilites and typical kids too,and he is doing very well .
- they like to mix the kids so they learn from each other.

He loves to do all the morning charts with the teachers. Some kids that are 5 and 6 still don't know all their Abc's and kind of think it's cool that Chase knows them.
I think the best thing to do for these types of kids is read to them and also expose them to society and their peers to help them communicate better.
Most kids with hyperlexia can read very early but tend not to understand what their reading. I was just like this growing up myself. I loved to read and I would read a book per night as I would go to bed for school the next day. But like with hyperlexia I sure could not tell you what the heck the book was about. When I read I have to read a sentence over and over before I can really understand it. In college I did lots of visual things to memorize things for tests. Maybe I'm a little Hypelexic too- maybe it's genetic.

Thank you for the reply! I thought I was suppose to get an email to any replies and I didn't, and seeing that so few people write on here, I thought no one would. You have given me a lot of food for thought on how to deal with Tristan and his needs, and I thank you very much for that.
Since the time of my post, he has came a good way with things. He is talking a bit. Mostly just syllables, though he does say mama and dada when he wants us. Well, more like mamamamamamama and dadadadadada, But he associates it with us. He won't do it when we want him to, but that he is doing it at all is leaps and bounds from a few months ago. Tristan is a strange diagnosis though. While he does things like he knows the upper and lower case of letters, and he color coordinates his letters, he is starting to talk and is very social. About the only thing he has a social problem with is sitting for group at the play group he goes to. At not quite 2, he will sit with something he is interested in literally for hours, but if you interrupt him he doesn't get angry. He is also getting better with sign language for the things he wants. So while the signs show he is definitely hyperlexic, he doesn't fit in with any of the normal parameters otherwise associated with it.
One thing that he is really into is the Baby Einstein/Little Einstein shows. He will be watching them and he will smile and giggle and jump around, constantly focused on what is going on. He loves the music. Perhaps more than the visuals of the show.
He has also made great improvements on his computer. It is designed for 4-6 year old children. But 9 out of 10 times he will get the letter or number they ask for right. He's even learned how to use the mouse and the shift to switch between lower and upper case.
He is very into physical stimulation as well. He will take his letters, rub them from his forehead to his back and let them fall down his shirt. And he does this with more than his letters. He liked the way things feel, especially on his head and back. Which is another sign of hyperlexia. Oh, and when he is upset, if we sing the ABC song to him, he calms down almost immediately.
I was talking with his therapist today, and she did say children like ours generally tend to come from parents that are highly intelligent. If it is something genetic, she said they do not know. There are not enough kids with the condition our kids have to be able to make any assumptions. Especially since hyperlexia outside of autism has only recently been diagnosed. We, the parents, are really more the experts on the subject than the experts are. I personally think that if hyperlexia is ever going to be truly understood, it is going to be the parents compiling our every day life stories with our kids that are going to make the most headway. I'm just very happy to have someone to talk to about this now. Someone who has spent more time with a child who has it. I have many worried for my son, and to see that Chase is living a decent life and is generally quite happy is encouraging. I think that is the hardest part about all of it. I have no problem spending more time with him, or seeking ways to help him learn and grow with the condition he has. I just worry that he will not be happy, will feel inferior or out of place as he gets older. Things that I really can't do a lot to fix. But both you and Chase seem to be doing fine, and that takes a big weight off of me.
Now that I know you are writing to me, I will check back often to see if you've commented. I would love to hear how Chase is doing, and how things are going for you too. Our support group is really small, and that is nationally, not just on the board here. So knowing there is someone else out there who understands means a great deal.
Thanks again for writing me back!

~ Dave

Hi, I was just checking the board and noticed you had replied. I didn't get an email either.
Since I last wrote I purchased Chase a set of President Fandex flashcards and United States Fandex Flashcards. He already has about 1/3 of the presidents memorized - he just loves these. Monday I was at the gym and seen that the Rachel Ray Show had a 6 year old on there that new all 44 of his presidents. I was thinking to myself - I wonder if he has Hyperlexia? Chase will most likely have all his presidents memorized within a few weeks. I'm not sure if I would want him on a TV Show or not? Or maybe I would to help more people understand what Hyperlexia is.
In response to your son sitting in a group during his play group time - I think that's normal behavior for his age plus he's a boy. I also have a 14 year ols son, 18 year old daughter and a 24 year old step-son. My 14 year old son was just plain wild when he was between 12 months to about 3 years old. I thought he had ADD. But the dr.s kept telling me he's just a boy and that boys are a little more rambunctious(hope that's spelled ok). And this turned out to be true - my 14 year old son is so calm and collected now and also very smart. I'll talk to you later - Chase wants on the computer.

Hey again! Sorry it's been a while, but I had some internet provider issues and wasn't on for about a month.
I, too, am beginning to wonder if what my boy has is true hyperlexia. He displays only two symptoms; the ability with letters and the inability to speak. However, there is no anti-social behavior, no frustration when patterns are changed. Plus, his unique abilities have grown far beyond numbers and letters. He understands complex processes that he, at best, has only seen happen. Such as being able to turn on the TV, set it to the proper channel, turn on the DVD player, skip it through the previews and get it playing so he can watch a movie he is interested in. He just turned 2 on the 31st of March. Also, he was never, until last night when he did this, allowed to touch the TV or DVD player. And this isn't the only thing I've noticed he has been able to do.
He seems to be able to watch a complex task being done, and then mentally break it down into all its components and duplicate the process successfully on his first attempt. He has already shown interest in computers, and while it is still an off limit zone for him, I will be letting him on one soon. I just want to have the proper materials to document what he does.
These recent additions to his abilities has made his therapist hold back on giving him the hyperlexia label. Something just does not fit with him for such a classification, but no one involved seems to know what is going on with him.
I'll keep you posted as often as I can with what is going on. It's just weird. Kinda X-Filesish. lol. Maybe there was something in the shots they gave me back when I was 18 and went into the Navy at Great Lakes. Oooohhhh...gotta love those government conspiracies. lol

Hi...I am new here, and I was reading about your children. My daughter is 8, and she...like your children began reading around two years old. She knew numbers 1-5 when seeing them at 18 months in various order, and she was always obsessed with numbers and letters (even now). My daughter wanted to learn her multiplication facts, so she memorized them even though she's in second grade.

All I basically wanted to tell you all is to get speech therapy for your children. It helped our child sooo much. You should also consider getting your children occupational therapy and placing them in groups to play and intereact with other children. Our child has been playing soccer since she was 3 years old. Just some food for thought!!