Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Compulsive Reader - Odd Behavior

Brief history - DS8 remains an enigma. We are getting ready to undergo another round of testing to try to understand his strengths and weaknesses so we can best help him.
In short - he has tested as gifted verbally, other domains pretty average. His achievement scores were much higher across the board. He has a diagnosis of ADHD, visual processing issues and possibly SPD. We thought maybe dysgraphia but his writing is good and fast when he is interested (which is rare) in writing.

To my question - his reading behavior is obsessive and I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this kind of behavior. Perhaps this can give us a clue which 2E direction to go in.

Some habits:
- Need to read constantly - at the dinner table, brushing his teeth, in the car, while tying his shoes... it's like he can't tolerate the world without a book or his e books.
- fast reading - he can read a 400 page book in a day. Obviously he is not reading every word but he comprehends the material.
- rereads books and will very often read random books around the house and car.

Is this behavior normal? Is this his ADHD? His giftedness?

I know I am grasping at straws here but I am desperately trying to understand my son.

Thank you in advance for any input.

Neither I nor any of my sibs have a known second exceptionality, but were all pretty much compulsive readers--I think, in most cases, as a reflection of the thirst for knowledge. Actually, we all still are. It is known in our family that if any of the sibs is visiting, don't leave any documents out that you don't want read, as we will all read anything in print that is accessible (and we all read upside down and backward pretty well, too!).

My non-LD, (but possibly ADHD, for one of them), children read nonstop. My dyslexic/dysgraphic does not, but begs constantly to be read to, and will devour high interest books (e.g., Secret Coders, anything else by Gene Luen Yang).

I was a constant reader as a kid too. It seems totally normal to me to try to read while brushing your teeth or while tying your shoes. Heck sometimes I still do

I would say that my DS9 is an obsessive reader. I haven't yet met any other moms who make weekly trips to the library to feed their child's passion (but I'm sure that there are some on this forum!) I take big shopping sacks and fill my bags with books. And DS also downloads books onto his ipad using the Overdrive app. I'm not sure many other parents have to monitor the 99 item limit on their library card, but I do.

I would say that I feed into it. If he gets something in his mind that he just has to read, I will drive over to the library to get it for him. As an example, he read something about the ivory billed woodpecker and became obsessed by it. He found a book that he wanted called, "The Lord God Bird." So I went and got it for him that same day. I know there are other moms who think I'm crazy. I guess I figure that he could be spending 10 hours a day playing video games, so this seems like a better option.

My son has been diagnosed with being gifted through his school, but hasn't been diagnosed with anything else, such as ADHD.

These days, I typically don't worry about how late he is staying up to read, unless he starts to seem really grumpy and tired during the day. I do monitor what he is reading.

When you say, "Is this behavior normal?" I have resigned myself to the fact that DS just isn't normal, so I shouldn't expect him to be.

My DD12 has autism, and she is the type of obsessive reader you describe. But I am not on the spectrum, and I was too. I still sometimes read while brushing my teeth and riding in the car (although not driving!). When I was about four, I read part of a medical textbook belonging to the mother of one of my friends, and told her it was "silly". I wouldn't worry about it unless you feel like it is interfering with other parts of his life.

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies.
I am not worried about this behavior (except when it seems like he will have a meltdown if he can't read his book) but I was hoping his reading style would give me a window into what is going on with him since we are so dizzied up with diagnoses.

JessicaJune - I too am exhausted keeping up with his reading. I was buying used books on Amazon for a while and maxing out my library card. I finally got him Kindle unlimited so that helps.

I am just so dizzy trying to understand him. He can read a 400 page, adult level book (high interest football book about the Mannings) but he can't get himself to do basic school type responsibilities. He races through tests too. He can't wait to be done. He is always first. And he is by no means acing these tests.

Hoping neuropsych testing will give us answers.

DS switches back and forth between his books and his computer games. He used to bring multiple books to school each day and read them there whenever the teachers would let him. He brings them in the car, even quick trips, to stores, to waiting rooms even if we're just going to have to wait 2 min. etc. I always saw it as a way to try to stimulate himself when he's bored. There are times when I would rather he do something else, for instance play with the other kids rather than reading a book at recess. I think he was doing that because he found the books more rewarding than whatever was going on with the kids. (usually they would be doing some sort of physical game that DS was just not interested in because he has motor issues). I am mildly worried about DS using it as an avoidance techinique but would worry more, however, if he was having meltdowns if he couldn't have books for a short period of time. That sounds more abnormal to me. People need to be able to cope in a world when they can't have whatever they want at all times, KWIM? I would definitely bring that up to the psych.

It's tough when you're in that spot where you don't understand what's driving behaviors - I hope the neuropsych testing will help - it may not give you a "complete" answer but it will at least give you more data to help you understand what's up with your ds.

Re the reading - I have a dd who reads extremely super-fast. She easily reads novels in a few hours... and retains the details. When she describes how she reads, it's a little bit like how I was taught to speed-read but not exactly. She looks at blocks of words at a time (similar to speed reading) but also says that she sees the words as a movie. She's also my daughter who had visual processing challenges when she was young and trying to learn how to read. She says she's never learned how to read one word at a time, and I've wondered if perhaps it was due to her vision issues.


The thing about my fast-reading daughter that's different from what you described is that even though she loves, loves, loves books, she can put them down without anxiety when she has something else to do. It sounds like there's something else going on with your ds that's causing stress. While you're waiting for the neuropsych, I'd suggest thinking through the things he can't seem to get himself to do - what type of basic school responsibilities does he seem to not want to do or is unwilling to do? What does he rush through? Looking at those things might also provide a hint of what's up, and even though it's unlikely you'll be able to solve the puzzle on your own while waiting, being able to describe these things will give insight to the neuropsych when he/she reviews your child's history and current functioning with you.

Best wishes,

polarbear

If he has a meltdown because he is being asked to put down a book when he is deeply engrossed and/or at a critical point that is understandable (think how you feel when woken up to an unexpected demand). If he shows signs on anxiety when he doesn't have a book in hand then mention it to the neurophysh. I read anything that is there to be read (I am more controlled now) although if it is something not mine I am able to look at it as a whole to see if my name is there - one of my lecturers didn't believe this though. It is more effiecient to put the book down while you put on your shoes and clean your teeth though then go back to it

Wait- reading while brushing your teeth is odd?

My husband would say you've described me to a T - at least until a pair of high-maintenance babies seriously curtailed my reading during their waking hours (which was pretty much all of them, ugh). In my younger days, I was never without a book in hand or pocket, whether at school, walking down the street, or (definitely, and still) brushing my teeth. I would suspect compulsive reading suggests there's nothing happening in the real world that's remotely as interesting as what's going on in the books. Which is not inherently a problem, in my highly biased view .

But there's a difference between finding books really interesting, and finding the real world utterly intolerable. If your son prefer books to un-engaging and unrewarding work, or resists sudden interruptions when deep in a story, well, who can blame him? As long as he can also happily put the books down to engage with those people or activities he does enjoy.

But if he wants to avoid the real world under any circumstances, that suggests there's things going on out there he can't deal with, and you need to figure out what they so you can help him learn to interact, navigate and cope. Is he finding social interactions a negative experience? Experiencing sensory overload? Is there something "out there" that doesn't feel safe? Is it possible there's a processing deficit that's causing some sensory intake (such as visual or auditory) to be providing wrong information, so he doesn't trust one his senses and is therefore avoiding relying on it?

For my own younger self, there were no extra Es (that I can quite pin down, at least!). Just a kid with little in common with her peers, poor social skills, utterly unengaged at school and with limited imagination - so whenever I was bored, I lived in my books. (random note: An odd thread last year about aphantasia - the inability to picture things in one's head - made me realize that's me. Perhaps a contributor to always seeking external stimulus of books over internal thoughts?) I guess it comes back to - does he prefer a book over boring things, or over all things?

Thank you Platypus101, puffin, blackcat and polarbear - great insights all around.

Yes, he is a social boy - at least one on one. He loves adults, younger kids and some peers. He's played on sports teams and will happily play sports. He doesn't like big crowds or noise and likely has sensory issues (that's a separate post).

He seems to need his book when he is in sensory overload as Platypus101 mentioned. As soon as I pick him up from school he buries his head in a book to relax from the school day. Same thing after a party.

I should also mention that hie is a single topic boy. He reads one subject exhaustively before moving on or deviating. Now it is sports. In the past it was history and geography.

I think he may have 2E issues but from what everyone here has said odd reading behavior is not in itself enough a problem.

Just a few more thoughts for you -


FWIW, my dd with vision challenges also didn't like big crowds and was extremely sensitive to noise. In some ways, I think the visual challenges led to uber-development of both her hearing and sense of smell. She is still extremely sensitive to odors, but was able to deal with large crowds once we had her vision challenges remediated. She also appeared to be a highly sensory challenged child when she was young, pre-vision diagnosis. Much of the sensory behavior was also tied back to vision.


Rather than the reading, the need to escape/cool down/etc is a red flag (just my perspective)... many kids are tired at the end of the school day, but most kids don't need to "relax" when they come home from school at the end of the day. My 2e ds had a similar mode of operation (but different type of escape) when I picked him up from elementary school prior to his diagnosis and getting appropriate accommodations in place.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I can see where you're coming from, polarbear, and I guess it depends on whether this is a particular reaction to school, or a more general reaction. My DD is a textbook introvert and noise sensitive. A day in a noisy classroom sucks the life out of her, and she most definitely needs to find a quiet place to hide and re-energize after most days of school.

But she's been this way since a baby. She really enjoys people, but can only take so much noise and interaction before she needs to retreat. From the time she could make her needs known, when the house was full, there would always be a point at which she'd take my hand and pull me off into a quiet room somewhere to snuggle up and quietly read to her. When re-charged, she'd re-join. Those quiet spaces are essential to her. Ask her first thing on a Saturday morning if she wants to find friends, the answer will always be no. But ask at noon, and she's raring to go. She's recovered from the week at school by then.

I am not an introvert of this kind, and it has taken me a long time to understand that DH and DD need to be allowed to disappear in the middle of company sometimes, that it's not rude, it's just essential to their sanity. So if you think there's something about school or certain environments that is now shutting your son down in an unusual way, that should be pursued. But if that need for quiet breaks has always been there, that need to recuperate between exposures to loud crowded places, then I would see the retreat as pretty normal. It sounds like your son spends lots of time enjoying other people and activities, in addition to his reading. As long as there is balance, and he seems happy in both, he is probably finding the way of navigating the world that works for him.

Thank you Platypus101 and Polarbear. I do think he sounds like your daughter Platypus101. Can be social when he is in the mood but definitely needs quiet retreats from school, large crowds or extended play time.

When I pick him up from school his brain needs to unwind. He really can't talk for 15-20 minuets or so. I can't ask him about his day. I give him that time to relax and decompress and wait for him to rejoin us.