Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Hyperlexia and academic achievement

Our DD16 is very, very similar to Mana's description of her DD. And I agree, I think she sees patterens much more easily than others, and the is part of what explains her areas of relative strength- very early reading, math, foreign language and music. She finds music theory comes very easily, and seems to find things like composing and arranging music cone naturally, seeing patterns and relationships. Like Mana's daughter, we never had concerns about comprehension, spelling was easy and basically automatic. And she also had traits which could be considered ASD-ish, but which are completely absent now (mainly sensory, loud-noise aversion and anxiety, emotionally hypersensitive.)

How old is your daughter now? Is she in school?

Our PDD-NOS symptoms were largely sensory avoidances of all types (oral, tactile etc), repetitive play and language delays. A little bit of everything but none was serious. Maybe because he was a boy or maybe because his language delay was still substantial at 2.5y, the psychologist gave us an ASD dx. The symptoms have disappeared or disappearing, so it is similar to what you are describing.

My son does well in music classes (piano), but he doesn't love it. He has no problems reading the notes, but his fine motor skills aren't advanced (they are age-appropriate, specially for a male child) so I have to incentivize every time it is time to practice.

We had concerns about reading comprehension because we were told we would have those issues by our psychologist who noted his hyperlexia. So far, based on scores it doesn't appear to be the case, but from reading ASD boards, it seems like the real struggle for diagnosed kids comes in the later elementary grades and he just finished the 1st (7.5yo) - way too early to tell, despite very high 90s in the reading comprehension, spelling, vocabulary and math. Did your DD have Cogat testing in school? Did she have verbal/nonverbal gap that is typical in hyperlexic kids?

I don't know if I believe in hyperlexia3 anymore. Statistically speaking, PDD-NOS dx is only 35% stable within the first three years for children diagnosed before 36 months, so a lot of kids recover from this mild form of ASD, and I assume some have hyperlexia too, but a lot don't. I don't think it is a specific hyperlexia type. I think it is a specific ASD presentation that isn't stable over time, and it is the children's typical IQs instead of hyperlexia that seems to improve the chances of recovery significantly.

Hi Chicagomom. Yes, our DD took the CoGat in third grade. She scored 99% composite; the difference between verbal and nonverbal was small, I don't remember which was higher but they were pretty close.

Her music skills were not as evident when she was as young as your DS, except for generally being a fast learner. At this point she transposes and reads/writes in several clefs, has extremely good relative pitch and a weirdly accurate aural memory. All could be related at least in part to seeing and reproducing/playing with patterns, kind of like learning a foreign language, also something that comes easily to her.

As far as school goes, academics are far too easy, even now with AP and dual enrollment, but she has always been self-motivated to find and create challenge herself, either in or outside of class. Socially there have been bumpy times, particularly in early middle school, but I'm not sure it's anything that unusual.

Hope that helps in some way.

DD10 could spell individual words very early, and probably read them, though she only read them aloud right around when she turned 3. In Kindergarten she read chapters books well and was give 5th grade reading comprehension materials by her teacher; by the end of K her reading level appeared to be around grade 8, though it was always a bit hard to tell because lack of background knowledge was an issue. (I remember her Kindergarten teacher giving her a 5th grade passage about the fall of the Berlin Wall, for example--try asking a Kindergartner what they now about the Cold War, lol!) Anyway, I suppose she might fit Hyperlexia III except she had very good comprehension.

She also has dx of ADHD and high functioning autism, but still reads at a very high level. High school? College? I dunno. But she's also great with patterns and working several years ahead in mathematics. The reading was not a transient or isolated skill.

IME it is worth watching as the kids make leaps in social development through elementary-- there are a few moments where all of a sudden a light bulb turns on and the kids get new awareness of themselves, each other, and their social powers. Keep an eye on whether your child develops alongside peers in this regard. PDD-NOS (ASD) looks really different in elementary than it does in preschool, especially in a gifted kid.


The thing to watch for a kid like this (again IME) is comprehension of perspectives in reading, and making inferences. As they move from understanding basic content to understanding things like the motivation of a character, or the angle from which a text is written, that is where comprehension issues can crop up in a strong reader with PDD-NOS / ASD.

I just wanted to point out with all of this ASD/PDD-NOS talk that PDD-NOS is no longer a diagnosis given due to the aforementioned discrepant outcomes. The previous diagnoses of PDD-NOS, Asperger's, and Autistic Disorder were all wrapped up into Autism Spectrum Disorder--there are no subtypes (whether that be PDD-NOS, Asperger's, "high functioning," or "low functioning"). If you have a clinician considering diagnosing your child with PDD-NOS or Asperger's, seek a different one.
Children diagnosed with an ASD through the use of an ADOS-2 by a research reliable examiner and with a full assessment (autism-specific interview and developmental/cognitive/language/etc testing) have an incredibly low rate of ever "growing out of" their symptoms.
(I work in autism assessment at an internationally renowned center for autism.)

Priiak,

I have a question. What happens to those who are at the higher/est functioning end of things? Are they less likely to be diagnosed now under the new system?

ds's neuropsych w/ a large university believes a lot of kids are being misdiagnosed with autism. The autism rate keeps going up, not down.

There are many reasons for the autism rate going up, but that's a conversation for another time.
My point stands: if a diagnosis is made with an appropriate assessment (autism specific interview, ADOS-2 with a research reliable examiner, additional cognitive/language/etc testing, additional reports from school/outside sources other than the parent, etc), the likelihood of that diagnosis changing is slim. Of course, there are always outliers, but they're just that: outliers.
The issue is really in the lack of appropriate diagnostic techniques, e.g. therapists diagnosing on the basis of an hour with the child every other week, quick diagnoses at intake during a psych hold, etc. I've seen plenty of those, and they're an issue. But, that's not just specific to ASD. I also see bipolar, schizophrenia, and other weighty diagnoses are also handed out like candy. I once saw a three year old who had been previously diagnosed with bipolar. Bipolar!
On the other hand, many children of color and girls are heavily underdiagnosed with ASD. All too often, children of color are instead diagnosed with conduct disorder, intellectual disability, schizophrenia, personality disorders, etc, before finally receiving ASD.