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.  When he started Kindergarten, he was tested by the school.  They were perplexed by how he had a 4th grade reading level, but didn't understand phonics at all.  They'd never seen a child with his abilities with reading.  They had to tweak their curriculum to teach him phonics, but also to feed his intense insatiable need for reading.  Another fascinating trait he had was the ability to say a word perfectly without ever hearing it before.  Not just small words, but big words.  For now, Reagan prefers to read nonfiction, but does well reading the required fiction novels for school.

Interestingly, Reagan never spelled words out like Leo is doing.  The first time Leo spelled a word was when he got an ABC puzzle at Christmas.  He spelled "yesno" as soon as we unwrapped it.  Now three months later, it is quite astonishing to see the word chains Leo creates with his little wooden Melissa and Doug letters.  Sometimes, he is copying a word off of an app from his iPad and othertimes it's just from memory.  He's usually very accurate, but occasionally misspells a word or two.  Probably the most baffling thing about this whole thing is Leo still does not speak.  Every so often we hear him say something that sounds like a word, but rarely will he repeat it on command.  "More" is the only word he will say with any consistency and even then we have to be holding a cupcake, cookie or some other highly desirable item for him to say it.  Since he is nonverbal, we are trying several augmentative speech practices.  He is starting to use sign language more appropriately and other communication tools like PECS (see below) and digital speech devices so I hope his verbal skills will be following, but not sure how quickly.  His therapists say he needs to learn and understand the purpose of speech.  Many words right now don't seem to mean a heck of a lot to him except words he really relates to or things he loves.  Words like drink, eat, Mommy, Daddy, iPad, vitamins, cookie, cake, cupcake, cracker, bus, school, bye bye, bed, blankey, etc.  He does not understand questions unless it has one of the above words in it.  Who, what, where, when & why questions are impossible right now for him to even comprehend.

I doubt I will run out and get him diagnosed with Hyperlexia because it wouldn't really impact him any differently for what therapies he would receive.  So many things in the autism teaching/therapy world have to be visual because most kids on the spectrum are visual and tactile learners not auditory.   PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) is a perfect example of how the pairing of words with pictures can help bridge the communication gap with a child who is nonverbal to help facilitate acquiring meaningful speech.  Sign language as well is a visual tool to encourage the use of functional speech by pairing a sign with a spoken word. Leo uses both forms of communication right now.  I think PECS, signing and reading instead of just hearing people say words helps Leo comprehend so much more.  Letters and numbers are so concrete, never change and that has to be a comfort to Leo in this very confusing world.

Here are some of Leo's words he's spelled over the last few weeks:

Not sure what "dpv" means.  He's spelled that word more than once.

"a all done"

"one two wind top"

"yum cake coke watermelon juice"

"a utah texas new york"

"yankee doodle skip to"

"no items match your search"

My favorite one so far.  LOL.

copying words from the Signing Time app

"san sad argry (angry) birds"

"us bus long"

"run goodbye backpack"

"box you and me"

"sing bike"

"dogs see"

"i like do not like do not want" :)

He actually blew our minds a few weeks ago when he spelled Matt, Dasha, and his name including our last name for each of them all in a row.  We don't even know how in the world he knows how to spell Dasha, but he does.  So now we play the "What Will He Spell Next Game" everytime we walk by the table especially since he changes the words multiple times a day.