Spell What?! Hyperlexia and Autism.
Hyperlexia basically means the precocious ability to read or spell words without having any prior learning or training of the written word. It occurs well before the age of 5. The experts say that a child with hyperlexia usually has a below normal ability to understand spoken language even though their reading level is off the charts. They often have a very low comprehension of what they are reading as well. There is also some argument about whether or not Hyperlexia is it's own diagnosis separate from autism or if it is a subset of autism. Reagan and now Leo have shown this ability by the time they were 2 years old, but neither necessarily meet the criteria perfectly to be diagnosed. I guess you could say they have hyperlexic tendencies. We know that Reagan was able to read very early on due to his obsessions with reading magazines, but it was hard to gauge what his abilities/comprehension were until he became verbal at 3 1/2-4 years of age. ...