I have a 16 yo who might have been diagnosed as hyperlexia had we pursued it. She was obsessed with the written word by age about 12 months and reading ability really took off by her 2nd birthday. She was not an early talker, so much of her spoken language development occurred in parallel with reading. By the time she was 4yo, she no longer wanted dh or I to read aloud to her because she could read much faster on her own. She had some other unusual qualities that could raise flags for ASD (extreme stranger anxiety as a baby/toddler, did not speak her first year at preschool,…). For reasons that may not have been entirely rational, we were not keen on pursuing a diagnosis - in any case, it would certainly have been a "high functioning" diagnosis.
But the main thing I wanted to convey is that our experience is another example showing it is possible to be an early reader without hyperlexia. It was clear to us as parents from the start that her reading comprehension was strong, and throughout school she was always off the charts on standardized testing for reading (she took her first SRI Lexile test in 3rd grade and her score was above the college range).
Our approach in the early years was to embrace the joy she found in reading. We put a lot of time and effort into finding/procuring books in line with her interests. Many, many, many books. Today she is an extremely capable hs student (in all subjects). In her case, early reading was a sign of unusually strong cognitive ability that has persisted through the years, judging from hs grades and a recent ACT test.
Last edited by amylou; 07/01/16 07:33 AM.
