Hyperlexia?

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My recently-turned 2yo son has, over the past few months, developed an obsession with letters and numbers that have stemmed from his and his brother's shared interest in subway trains. He would always point to the letter or number indicated on the train and I would tell him what the name of the letter or number was. He then got interested in books about subways and identifying the letters and numbers of the subways in the book. He then moved on to counting books and alphabet books and he now identifies and reads all 26 letters and numbers 1-10. He confuses the letter K with letter R, and mixes up M and W, but other than that he knows all the letters, and says them as best as he can, although his speech is still very delayed and his pronunciation is shabby. He now demands all letters on signs be verbalized while walking on the street, and points out all the letters wanting the words be read to him. His socialization has improved tremendously along with his eye contact (ABA therapy) and he is making great strides.

He is being taught by us (yes we are his tools LOL), but he is the one driving it.

Is he hyperlexic or is it too soon to tell?

A rose by any other name is an aspie right?

But yeah I think so.

The thing I did with my child was to take the sentences I wanted him to say, put them down on paper, cut them up, and say each word to him. He then had to order the sentences.

I also used workbooks with him from this series which I guess is online now. http://www.explodethecode.com/

Oh and Thomas the tank engine.

So yeah he probably likes figuring out the patterns in reading. I always strived to connect meaning to things and not just decoding.

My son is very hyperlexic and really it comes back to basically being an aspie with a good reading ability and limited interest on what topics (trains).

If I could do it over again, I would work on his listening skills more. Maybe saying a whole sentence and have him put it all together. His listening skills have really really improved and he can repeat a whole complex sentence back to me but this took years to develop.

He really didn't start speaking much until 4 (although he was reading at 18 mo.). He would read a book out loud but not really say anything other than that...

Could be hyperlexic; could just be an early reader. But if he hasn't shown signs of being highly gifted rather than average-to-bright, I'd go with hyperlexic.

His interest in letters and numbers seems pretty harmless, and learning to read early might give him a head start in school. No reason not to let him learn reading at his own pace. If he's got letters down, he might start learning how to string them together. Or, if he's like most hyperlexic kids, he might learn how to read just from being read to and seeing text. Go ahead and read to him; if he likes letters, it's probably a great way to spend time with him.

If he's hyperlexic, his comprehension will lag behind his decoding ability--he might be able to read something, but not understand it. That's typical for hyperlexic kids. As he gets older, you'll learn more about his talents and weaknesses, and if weaknesses start to show up, he can get some extra tutoring in those areas. He may well end up with a rather scattered skill profile, with some skills ahead of his peers and some behind. That's typical for both autistics and hyperlexics. If that's the case, do make sure the school system lets him develop his strengths. Sometimes they get so caught up on remedying a deficiency in one subject or another that they forget about letting a child shine where he's talented.

But hey, he's two. Let him be a toddler. If he wants to play with letters the way most kids play with blocks, let him; there's no harm in it. Perhaps he'll simply grow up to be a bookworm. I learned to read sometime before I turned four, and that's what happened to me.

My son is interested in comprehension now (almost 4) but at 2 and even 3.5 was definitely more about cataloging and memorizing (first letters/numbers, then words and other things).
We started an ABA program around reading stories and asking wh-questions about them and he's quickly picked it up. He learns quickly when explicitly taught. But I don't know if he was ready for this until recently.
On the Hyperlex yahoo group a lot of parents report long-term comprehension struggles. So you just can't know.

I wrote a post called "annotated, selected hyperlexia bibliography" on my blog which you may find helpful. I would just link to it but I don't post often enough here so I can't post links yet. Google for the win. Anyway in that post I have pointers to several books, articles, and the Hyperlex group. You may have found a lot of it already.

Yeah, that's pretty typical, to be interested in the letters first and the stories second or not at all.

But the thing is, once you're reading fluently, you're going to be exposed to the stories, like it or not, and if you've got a stitch of curiosity you'll probably start reading for the sake of reading. That is what happened to me. By about nine years old I was reading primarily because I was interested. As an adult, I can read anything written and don't qualify as hyperlexic anymore because my comprehension, while low compared to my other abilities, is actually higher than most people's due to sheer practice.

My son also has limited interests (mainly trains and putting together track) he started talking at 18 months and when I say talking I mean you could have a conversation with him. He had no interest whatsoever in learning to read, when I tried to encourage him at two years old he told me that either I or his sister could read for him! At 3 he started pre school and we had to take home books to read to him, which he really enjoyed, at this point I started teaching him letters. He showed very little interest in this often getting upset at me for asking him about the letters in the book because he wanted me to read the story! But we are now a year on and he is on the third reading level in Reception, this is the level children are expected to get to at the start of year 1, so he is effectively a year ahead already. His sister has always been a good reader (21 months older) but she would need to read a word a few times before pronouncing it correctly, especially if it's an irregular word. My son does not need to do this, once you tell him how a word sounds or a group of letters then he remembers. His teachers say that he also verbally uses words well above his age. Not sure if all this means he is hyperlexia or gifted in any way. The funny thing is, he isn't really that interested in reading, he does his home reading and occasionally points out words on signs etc, but he doesn't put in as much effort as his sister does to her reading (which she loves doing)