Any other type 3 hyperlexics out there?

Post Reply New Topic

I'd be a type 2 hyperlexic, due to being on the autism spectrum. I started reading really young, about 3 or so. My dad had read encyclopedias to me at bedtime - they were all kept in my room - and I taught myself how to read and started reading them on my own because I thought everything in them was really interesting.

I had language delays but around 4 or 5 my speaking started improving decently.

In school I had much better ability to read than my peers. I was reading Lord of the Rings in elementary school.

I also read very fast, and I can read two lines at once, although I prefer to do that with certain types of writing, like news articles or textbooks and such. I don't have words going through my head when I read, either, but images.

I would qualify as type 2, except that my reading level was significantly higher than my age ("university level" in first grade). My comprehension was much lower, but still equal or higher than was appropriate for my age. I think.

This is a lot like me. I taught myself to read at age 4; I picked it up from watching Sesame Street. I've generally done well in reading comprehension. I work as an editor, so I make my living off of the written word.

I'm very much autistic, so I guess I'd be hyperlexic type two.
I'm Dutch and before I was three years old I had thought myself to speak English fluently, purely by sitting in front of the TV and watching cartoons on the BBC (Transformers, Inspector Gadget and the DJ Cat Show).

I think I started speaking rather later than average, but more because of being extremely socially anxious than being unable to.
Plus I had trouble pronounciating due to my fine motor control being worse than a cow's. I stuttered and started writing with my left hand, often backwards.
But overall I've always crushed reading related school work, like finishing the entire book (for a year) in two and a half hours before the first lesson had even began.

What's type 1, 2 or 3?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlexia

http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/ ... hyperlexia

thanx

It's important to note that there really isn't any scientific reason to separate hyperlexia into three categories. Hyperlexia is VERY poorly understood; there's an extreme paucity of hyperlexia research out there. The categories are just based on the observations of one researcher- he basically said, "yeah, I've noticed three patterns of experience among hyperlexia cases; here are the three ways it usually presents." His categories may or may not actually mean anything.

If you really look at the categories, it's kind of like he's saying, "Either we'll have soup for lunch, or we we'll have something else, or we won't eat at all." Well, that's obvious! Know what I mean? He says that hyperlexic children are either autistic, or not autistic, or start off seeming autistic and then seem not autistic. That's not an insight.

Separating hyperlexia into categories doesn't really explain anything; it just states the obvious. And in any case, he's not basing the separation on anything more concrete than the reports of parents whose hyperlexic kids either do or don't end up coping well with the NT world. "I think my kid doesn't really struggle" means type I; "I think my kid is going to be independent and happy despite the initial struggles" means type III and "I think my kid is going to continue to struggle" means type II. And given that I'm an example of someone who's halfway between types II and III, it seems likely that hyperlexia is actually a spectrum, like any other autistic disorder.

And I think that if there were more interest in hyperlexia among researchers, these points would have been brought up by them already, and Treffert's "categories" would have been debunked by now.

That being said, the categories are useful in the same way that the words small, medium and large are useful. They're meaningless on their own but handy when you're comparing things directly.

I was hyperlexic, as in being able to words, but not having much reading comprehension above a certain level, I don't know if it was more like the sentence level or the paragraph level or the story level.

I definitely didn't read for the subject matter before I started understanding what I read. I read for the pictures, i.e. the words, and the sounds of the words, regardless of whether or not I understood them by themselves or understood what they meant together. It was only after I learned to use language beyond this perceptual level that I really comprehended what I read. After that, I started reading for the subject matter and developed special interests, whereas I had only had repetitive activities before, reading and writing words being one of them.

Last edited by btbnnyr on 25 Jul 2012, 9:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My comprehension issues have always been problematic. I thought I had mostly worked through that but I keep coming across words I use based on context but do not know what they mean. It's not as bad as it was in my 20s, however. Or my teens.

There are more Hyperlexic Type 3s out there! My son is 4. He was clinically diagnosed H Type 3 a year ago at age 3. He spontaneously started reading whole words at 10 months, children's books by age 2, independently surfing the internet (typing by himself) by age 2.5, and writing since age 3. All of which was frightening and overwhelming to us, his parents. Instead of potty training, he would sit on the potty and read the tech manual for our water softener but he couldn't follow verbal instructions to find the trash can two feet away from him. So much we did not understand at the time. Upon diagnosis, we were seriously discouraged at the very few resources available. Anyway, Hyperlexia Type 3 is such a relatively unknown, unresearched condition, that any experiences from those who are also H Type 3 may be the most fabulous way to get the word out and help understanding. Reading your posts has helped me so much to understand my son. Perhaps those of you who are now adults and have lived (and suffered?) with the condition could start a forum and share your experiences. You may be the key to the science and research of the condition and would no doubt bring understanding and comfort to those (including parents) who will soon face similar experiences. I would love to know more. My son deserves all the help he can get.

I'm more of a type 2; I have always had an excellent reading ability, including in other languages. I was the only child in my preschool class who could read, and the teacher often had me read aloud to the other students. Sometimes my comprehension skills lack, especially if what I'm reading is centered around character motivations and the like. I have problems with information that must be inferred. If it's spelled right out for me, it makes the reading much more enjoyable, which is probably why I still enjoy kids' books so much.

hyperlexic/dyscalculia.

I think the hyperlexia is what helped me to unlock and decode BASIC when I was six. Hyperlexia makes it very easy to decode second languages as well, including things like music.

Dyscalculia has done squat for me.... Which sucks as I love science, tech, physics, engineering......

I wish I had more time to read, or another set of eyeballs and visual processing system.....

meh

I was a very early reader, and reading when I was 3... this is back in 1945. By 1st grade I was reading Book House books, and the World Book encyclopedia. And magazines, and comics, and Mentor paperbacks. My teachers loved it. I was tested often. In the third grade I went to a school set up at the University of Arkansas... I was still in elementary school, when I was reading like a 12th grade student. I liked classical music, and I especially liked looking at art books and prints. I liked the radio too, and got into crystal radio sets. My mother was on the spectrum I can see now... and she was amazing with words. Like she could type 65+ words a minute, and was a perfect speller... she also knew shorthand. She could do the NYTimes crossword puzzle with a ballpoint pen. She taught me and my sister to read very early, and my sister was not quite a year younger than me. But... this reading talent got me into university and the honor's program... and my sister did well too, and she was social and walked with a crowd of friends always.

...

Last edited by tall-p on 20 Oct 2012, 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.