Reading comprehension - where to find help?

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My son is turning 9. He fits the description of Hyperlexia (3) perfectly. He learned to speak early and read early, but we have discovered that his comprehension is very, very little. Right now our speech therapist is working with him, but we are thinking maybe he needs a specialized reading specialist that specializes on reading comprehension.

Any suggestions for Maryland? The DC area?

It was a Speech Language Pathologist who suggested my daughter had hyperlexia--over the phone. We are still on the waiting list for an appointment two years later. She was great, though, and spent an hour doing the same things they would have done in an intake appointment, so I think an SLP would have more knowledge of hyperlexia than a reading specialist. I'm presuming that's like a literacy specialist here; they are teachers with lots of extra education for reading difficulties. They may have great resources for dyslexia, but the ones I know don't know much about hyperlexia.

Since we couldn't get a program in place, the SLP suggested resources from Linguisystems. You can do a search for hyperlexia or autism and there is a great kit (two available, depending on grade level, and if you've had the WISC tests the reading comprehension level will be indicated). We had our tutor do the activities over the summer between Grade 7 and 8 with our daughter, because they require some dedicated time. Then we ordered some of the workbooks (Making Inferences, etc.) for her to do in school, instead of the regular program, but the teacher didn't use them. We did them at home, and she enjoyed them.

Linguisystems; https://www.linguisystems.com/index/home

Thanks so much for the reply.

I'm greatly perplexed that NO ONE has picked up on the hyperlexia with my son when it's his #1 symptom. Not at Childfind in Fairfax, VA or at the supposed super specialist at KK even though what I was describing to them was HYPERLEXIA. Here's stuff I've found about it, in case people are curious:

hyperlexia symptoms

I am not in your geographic area, but I would concur that speech therapists are more familiar with having autistic clients, and do cover those type of issues.

My son is hyperlexic, too. No one bothered with it b/c interest in numbers, symbols, letters, logo and shapes is just a weird type of a weird aspie interest and fluency is good, right? I don't know if it is truly that rare. I see it mentioned here a lot. I suspect no one really worries about how it manifests in the beginning, and so it doesn't get addressed until the reading comprehension issues show up later. Even then, they don't tend to care until the child gets really behind. Then it just gets categorized as reading comp issues. It comes from not being proactive.

We have been dealing with this for awhile, and the school did not care because his reading grades were still good. I would review his reading tests and I could look at what he got wrong, and then note to myself what types of questions they were. Anything that asked how a child in a story felt about something, or about social issues...forget about it. I could be wrong, but I do not think reading specialists have any special training in those kinds of issues. Now it is showing up in inferences and conclusions, too. I don't know if standard training in that is as helpful as what a speech person could do.

It's truly frustrating as a kid has to fail to get help. I said at the beginning of the year he was having comprehension issues. The school is trying, but their idea is to keep moving him down groups - from top to next to bottom. It doesn't address the issue!

His speech therapist is well... maybe I need to find a better one, but even that is super difficult. Wait lists for ones with insurance are INSANELY long. She does OK, but you can tell this is new territory for her, but at least she's trying and sees it's an issue. She's retired though - over 60 and I'm not sure she's as up to date as some younger ones. On the other hand, she has all those years of experience under her belt.

Any recs for ipad apps that are fun? If they aren't fun, forget about it. My son will shut down.

I don't think hyperlexia is that rare. I had it when I was young. I read words well from the time I was tiny; my comprehension fell somewhat below my ability to read words. I also didn't speak until I was 5 1/2, had classic autistic symptoms before speech; Aspergian symptoms afterwards.