Hyperlexia is a syndrome characterized by a child's precocious ability to read. It was initially identified by Norman E. Silberberg and Margaret C. Silberberg (1967), who defined it as the precocious ability to read words without prior training in learning to read, typically before the age of five. They indicated that children with hyperlexia have a significantly higher word-decoding ability than their reading comprehension levels. Children with hyperlexia also present with an intense fascination for written material at a very early age. Hyperlexic children are characterized by word-reading ability well above what would be expected given their age. First named and scientifically described in 1967, it can be viewed as an ability in which word recognition ability goes far above expected levels of skill. Some hyperlexics, however, have trouble understanding speech. Some experts believe that most children with hyperlexia, or perhaps even all of them, are autistic. However, one expert, Darold Treffert, proposes that hyperlexia has subtypes, only some of which overlap with autism. Between five and twenty percent of autistic children have been estimated to be hyperlexic. Hyperlexic children are often fascinated by letters or numbers. They are extremely good at decoding language and thus often become very early readers. Some English-speaking hyperlexic children learn to spell long words (such as elephant) before they are two years old and learn to read whole sentences before they turn three.
Etymology The word hyperlexia is derived from the Greek terms hyper 'over, beyond, overmuch, above measure' and lexis 'word'.
Development
Although hyperlexic children usually learn to read in a non-communicative way, several studies have shown that they can acquire reading comprehension and communicative language after the onset of hyperlexia. They follow a different developmental trajectory relative to neurotypical individuals, with milestones being acquired in a different order. Despite hyperlexic children's precocious reading ability, they may struggle to communicate. Often, hyperlexic children will have a precocious ability to read but will learn to speak only by rote and heavy repetition, and may also have difficulty learning the rules of language from examples or from trial and error, which may result in social problems. Their language may develop using echolalia and/or palilalia, often repeating words and sentences. Often, the child has a large vocabulary and can identify many objects and pictures, but cannot put their language skills to good use. Spontaneous language is lacking and their pragmatic speech is delayed. Hyperlexic children often struggle with Who? What? Where? Why? and How? questions. Between the ages of four and five years old, many children make great strides in communicating. A 2018 review stated that "despite good decoding and verbal short-term memory skills, individuals with hyperlexia exhibit poor listening, verbal working memory, and reading comprehension skills."
Types of hyperlexia In one paper, Darold Treffert proposes three types of hyperlexia. Specifically:
Type 1: Neurotypical children who are very early readers. Type 2: Autistic children who demonstrate very early reading as a splinter skill. Type 3: Very early readers who are not autistic, though they exhibit some "autistic-like" traits and behaviours which gradually fade as the child gets older. A different paper by Rebecca Williamson Brown, OD proposes only two types of hyperlexia. These are:
Type 1: Hyperlexia marked by an accompanying language disorder. Type 2: Hyperlexia marked by an accompanying visual-spatial learning disorder.
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