from  the Hyperlexia and Language Disorders home page

Hyperlexia in Older Children

By - Charlotte Miller

The language, learning, and behavior characteristics a young hyperlexic child has are often very distinctive. The precocious, self-taught reading at a young age, or fascination with letters, numbers, and patterns, along with the language-learning and communication difficulties, are unlikely to be missed by parents and others who have a young hyperlexic child in their lives.

By the age of six many of the language difficulties that are so noticeable in younger hyperlexic children are much less obvious. Primary or grade school hyperlexic children are often highly verbal, and are able to converse for lengthy periods of time on subjects that are usually beyond the interests of most children their age. Remarkable and intense interests in computers, mathematics, science, or other subjects, along with extensive vocabularies and remarkable amounts of memorized facts on their subjects of interest, often bring these children to the attention of educators and others as having the typical characteristics of giftedness. Often the language difficulties and learning differences of these children are forgotten or given little heed in light of the remarkable abilities they exhibit.

Although older hyperlexic children are often quite gifted academically, the hyperlexic learning style is at times at odds with the presentation of materials in the classroom. Hyperlexic children are highly visual learners, often processing much more effectively materials presented to them in visual formats. Visual methods of organizing materials or note taking, such as the use of Mind Maps or Word Webs, which allow the child to organize materials spatially instead of linearly, and the use of Story Maps for teaching reading comprehension, are often highly effective for the older hyperlexic child.

Social skills may at times be an area of difficulty for older hyperlexic children. The intensive language demands of social situations, along with difficulty understanding more verbal forms of humor, and an often more concrete understanding of language, sometimes lead to difficulties for these children. Attention should be focused within the language therapy setting toward assisting these children with social skills goals, as their difficulties in this area are due to the language and learning difference of hyperlexia. Small groups of children under the direction of a speech and language pathologist are the ideal setting for assisting hyperlexic children with social skills.

Hyperlexic children are intelligent, often highly-gifted individuals. They have an intense curiosity and interest in learning. Older hyperlexic children may often be highly verbal and obviously academically gifted. These gifts at times may be so obvious that little attention is paid to the language difficulties of hyperlexia, or to the very nature of the hyperlexic learning style. Only through an understanding of these language difficulties, and the visual and gestalt processing style of these children, can we help them to maximize their potential.

 

Charlotte Miller has a very inclusive list of links relating to hyperlexia on GeoCities if you are interested in reading more.