Hyperlexia and Math skills

Post Reply New Topic

As always, the responses on here are very helpful.

Please forgive me for neglecting some vital facts. My son is 6 and in first grade.

Also, he has not been officially diagnosed with hyperlexia or ASD, however many of his behaviors are indicative as such so for the sake of helping him succeed, I'm looking to help him as if he were.

The post that I really made a connection to was pensieve.

The reason being is that this is exactly what his teacher has told me about him. (I'm actually going to let his teacher read this thread.) She has told me that he feels very overwhelmed and loses focus quickly with Math. I also have noticed when working with him that he seems to have extremely poor retention when it comes to his Math work. He doesn't seem to recall when he "got it" with problem number four when he gets to number six.

I was/am hyperlexic and my struggles with math were basically textbook for this condition. Beyond basic algebra, my ability to learn math was severely impaired by my inability to understand the larger picture of what a given equation was supposed to accomplish. Everything up through algebra I was able to master via rote memorization, but it all faded the day I stopped studying it. At this point in my life I remember virtually no mathematical formulas and am unable to do any math aside from simple arithmetic.

I can't give you any advice except that, IF your child is or ends up being like me, it's better to foster the gifts they do have than waste a second of their lives on math.

How's his short-term memory? Like: Is he good at juggling facts in his head? When you tell him to do something, is it easier for him if you tell him one step at a time, instead of giving him a list of instructions all at once? (For example: If you tell him, "Go get the trash can from your room, dump the trash into the big kitchen wastebasket, and put a new bag in the trash can," would he find that especially difficult to follow?)

I've had trouble losing track of what I'm doing with math; I often solve it by writing everything out in very small steps as I do it, so that I don't have to keep much in my head at all. When other students use two pages of paper for a math assignment, I might use as many as ten, because I will organize everything carefully, write down the steps I'm using, write down the equations I'm referring to. It takes a little longer and of course uses more paper, but it's better than getting lost and frustrated all the time. I don't know if your son would benefit from this. In first grade he is likely doing simple one- or two-digit problems; so for him "writing it out" might actually mean using manipulatives or drawing dots to count, so that he doesn't lose track of one number while thinking of the other.

Callista, I'm not really sure about his short term memory for the example that you gave as I don't think I give him those types of responsibilities.

I've been reading and loving books since I was little but I always struggle with maths

When I was young many years ago I believed I had mild hyperlexia. I am currently 29. I learned how to read at 3. Also knew my alphabet at 18 months. When I got into 7th grade, I could read college words. Now, I almost have the opposite problem. As I get older I am getting more dyslexic. Also my math skills suck. I had to take algebra a lot (not because I failed though, just went school to school) and felt each time that I didn't know what they were talking about. In fact my math skills are so bad now, I can barely do basic math. I never took Calculus in high school or college. None of the higher math. My brother is dyslexic and knows high level math but just basic math sometimes he struggles like a starving artist on. Its weird. I never got my hyperlexia diagnosed though. And now if tested I would probably have mild dyslexia. I also don't comprehend things and can't read novels at all. I wouldn't understand the story. I wouldn't be able to imagine the characters. I wouldn't follow it at all. But I can read technical books like psychology and understand it better than the doctors. In fact I have taught my psychologist things. I can read text books but not novels.

I could read before I was 4. I used to use "big" words, and still often don't use them because people may not understand me. Heck, I HATE it when people don't think I will understand a subject and take 5 times as long because they repeat stuff that I often know better than they do. I never had a problem with the concept. I used to LOVE such words because I would find one word defined with another, and then look up that word, if I didn't already know it, etc...

Math has NOT been my strongest subject. Oddly, I knew things like how to approximate pythagorean's theorem before I knew ANYTHING about it. It was just OBVIOUS to me. I looked at an IQ test that recently had the P.T. on it, and with the choices given, I could have answered when I was 2 or 3 using effectively NO math! I even approximated the value of PI before I knew what it was or what it was for. And the idea that something like English could come so relatively easily, and yet math was difficult seemed silly, but I was clearly not alone.

Apparently, most people have roughly the same ability, but it is split up differently. That means that one great in languages is often not great in math, etc... Of course, you can improve either.

I am an adult hyperlexic and believe me, I struggled with math, and in some ways still do. I barely made it through high school algebra- and it was a struggle for me to comprehend basic math one needs in daily life- addition, subtraction, multiplication, division as well as measurements, percentages and ratios (I work in automotive, and you have to be able to deal with percentages, ratios and measurements.) But I did make it through three quarters of accounting in college, so a hyperlexic can learn to do math. It just doesn't come naturally for us like reading or spelling do.

It's important to remember that "gifted" doesn't always mean in every area. In fact, many "gifted" people have extreme deficits in some areas, usually opposite those of their strengths.

Realize that he is going to need extra study with math as well as plain old boring rote memorization. I hate to say it but the old time flash cards and drills helped me more than anything else. It also helps that today we have computers for the complicated equations- we just have to have a basic understanding of what numbers to plug in there. Visuals (hyperlexics are hopelessly and strongly visual learners) always help too, such as graphs for learning percentages and so on.

Good luck, and keep on encouraging him to develop his math skills.

I love to read but im terrible at math.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that when I was put into special needs in the 2nd grade till high school non of the teachers did any actual teaching. I would spend all day just reading things. I did really well with science and history in high school as would read the textbooks when I was board in class. I even got a perfect score on one of the history midterms other than the teacher taking 2 points off for my hand writing. the people on honor roll never and broke 90%.