Is Hyperlexia A Learning Disability

Hyperlexia is a syndrome characterized by a kid'southward precocious power to read. It was initially identified past Norman E. Silberberg and Margaret C. Silberberg (1967), who divers it every bit the precocious ability to read words without prior preparation in learning to read, typically before the historic period of five. They indicated that children with hyperlexia have a significantly college discussion-decoding ability than their reading comprehension levels.^[1] Children with hyperlexia also present with an intense fascination for written material at a very early age.^[two]

Hyperlexic children are characterized by word-reading ability well above what would exist expected given their historic period.^[3] First named and scientifically described in 1967 (Silverberg and Silverberg), it can be viewed as a superability in which word recognition ability goes far above expected levels of skill.^[4] Some hyperlexics, however, have problem agreement speech.^[4] Some experts believe that near children with hyperlexia, or possibly even all of them, lie on the autism spectrum.^[4] ^[2] However, one expert, Darold Treffert, proposes that hyperlexia has subtypes, just some of which overlap with autism.^[5] ^[vi] Between v and twenty percent of autistic children accept been estimated to be hyperlexic.^[seven] ^[8]

Hyperlexic children are frequently fascinated past letters or numbers. They are extremely good at decoding language and thus frequently become very early on readers. Some English language-speaking hyperlexic children acquire to spell long words (such every bit elephant) before they are two years onetime and learn to read whole sentences earlier they turn three.

Typical special interests of hyperlexic children often include letters, numbers, fonts, foreign alphabets, languages, the solar system, periodic table, logos, anatomy and geography (flags, countries, capitals).

Etymology [edit]

The word hyperlexia is derived from the Greek terms hyper 'over, beyond, overmuch, higher up measure out'^[9] and lexis 'give-and-take'.^[10]

Development [edit]

Although hyperlexic children usually larn to read in a not-communicative way, several studies accept shown that they tin acquire reading comprehension and communicative language after the onset of hyperlexia.^[2] They follow a different developmental trajectory relative to neurotypical individuals, with milestones beingness caused in a dissimilar social club. Despite hyperlexic children'due south precocious reading ability, they may struggle to communicate. Ofttimes, hyperlexic children will have a precocious ability to read but will learn to speak only by rote and heavy repetition, and may likewise have difficulty learning the rules of language from examples or from trial and error, which may consequence in social problems. Their language may develop using echolalia, often repeating words and sentences. Ofttimes, the child has a big vocabulary and tin can place many objects and pictures, simply cannot put their linguistic communication skills to good use. Spontaneous language is lacking and their pragmatic speech communication is delayed. Hyperlexic children often struggle with Who? What? Where? Why? and How? questions. Between the ages of four and v years old, many children make great strides in communicating.

The social skills of a child with hyperlexia often lag tremendously. Hyperlexic children oftentimes have far less interest in playing with other children than practice their peers.

Types of hyperlexia [edit]

In one paper, Darold Treffert proposes three types of hyperlexia.^[v] Specifically:

Type 1: Neurotypical children who are very early readers.
Type 2: Autistic children who demonstrate very early reading as a splinter skill.
Blazon 3: Very early readers who are non on the autism spectrum, though they exhibit some "autistic-similar" traits and behaviours which gradually fade as the child gets older.

A dissimilar paper by Rebecca Williamson Brown, OD proposes only 2 types of hyperlexia.^[11] These are:

Type 1: Hyperlexia marked by an accompanying linguistic communication disorder.
Type 2: Hyperlexia marked by an accompanying visual-spatial learning disorder.

Non-English studies [edit]

In studies in Cantonese and Korean, subjects were able to read non-words in their native orthography without a delay relative to the speed with which they read real words in their native orthography. There is a filibuster noted with exception words in English language, including the examples chaos, unique, and enough. These studies also illustrate difficulties in understanding what it is that they are reading. The findings propose that not-hyperlexic readers rely more heavily on give-and-take semantics in order to make inferences about word pregnant.^[12] ^[13]

The Cantonese study distinguish homographs and make up one's mind the readings for rarely used characters. In this study, the subject area also made errors of phonetic analogy and regularization of sound. The authors of the study suggest that the ii-routes model for reading Chinese characters may be in upshot for hyperlexics. The two-routes model describes understanding of Chinese characters in a purely phonetic sense and the agreement of Chinese characters in a semantic sense.^[13]

The semantics deficit is also illustrated in the written report of Korean hyperlexics through a priming experiment. Non-hyperlexic children read words primed with a related paradigm faster than non-primed words while hyperlexics read them at the same footstep. Lee Sunghee and Hwang Mina, the authors of the Korean report, likewise found that hyperlexics have fewer errors in non-word reading than non-hyperlexics. They suggest that this may be because of an imbalance in the phonological, orthographical, and semantic understandings of the subjects' native linguistic communication and writing organisation, in this case, Hangul. This combination of the parts of linguistics is known as connectionist theory, in which not-words are distinguished from words by differences in interaction between phonology, orthography, and semantics.^[12]

In the Lee and Hwang written report, the subjects scored lower on full general language test and vocabulary tests than the boilerplate for their age groups. Literacy education in S Korea involves teaching students unabridged words, rather than starting with the relationship between phonemes and letters in Hangul, despite prove that letter name knowledge is useful for learning to read words that have not been taught. The results suggest that hyperlexics are able to obtain the relations between messages (or the smallest unit of the writing system) and their phonemes without knowing the names.^[12] ^[14]

Comprehension difficulties can besides be a upshot of hyperlexia. Semantics and comprehension both have ties to significant. Semantics relates to the meaning of a sure word while comprehension is the understanding of a longer text. In both studies, interpretation-based and meaning-based tests proved hard for the hyperlexic subjects. In the Weeks study, the subject was unable to identify characters based on the logographic attribute of the writing system, and in the Lee and Hwang written report, priming was ineffective in decreasing reading times for hyperlexics.^[12] ^[13] ^[14]

Acquisition [edit]

Although it is more often than not associated with autism, a 69-year-old adult female appears to have been made hyperlexic because of a "cerebral infarction in the left inductive cingulate cortex and corpus callosum".^[fifteen]

References [edit]

^ Richman, Lynn, C.; Wood, K.M. (2002). "Learning disability subtypes: classification of high functioning hyperlexia". Brain and Language. 82 (1): 10–21. doi:10.1016/S0093-934X(02)00007-X. PMID 12174811. S2CID 23218407.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ostrolenk, Alexia (May 2017). "Hyperlexia: Systematic review, neurocognitive modelling, and effect". Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 79: 134–149. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.04.029. PMID 28478182.
^ Newman, Tina Grand.; Macomber, Donna; Naples, Adam J.; Babitz, Tammy; Volkmar, Fred; Grigorenko, Elena L. (19 September 2006). "Hyperlexia in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders" (PDF). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 37 (4): 760–774. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0206-y. PMID 17048093. S2CID 23401685. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c Grigorenko, Elena 50.; Klin, Ami; Volkmar, Fred (November 2003). "Notation: Hyperlexia: inability or superability?". Periodical of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 44 (eight): 1079–1091. CiteSeerX10.1.1.456.6283. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00193. PMID 14626452.
^ ^a ^b Treffert, Darold A. (2011). "Hyperlexia: Reading Precociousness or Savant Skill? Distinguishing autistic-like behaviors from Autistic Disorder". Wisconsin Medical Lodge. Archived from the original on 23 Baronial 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
^ Treffert, Darold A. (December 2011). "Hyperlexia Three: Separating 'Autistic-like' Behaviors from Autistic Disorder; Assessing Children who Read Early on or Speak Late" (PDF). WMJ. 110 (half-dozen): 281–287. PMID 22324205. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
^ Burd, Larry; Kerbeshian, Jacob (June 1985). "Hyperlexia and a variant of hypergraphia". Perceptual and Motor Skills. lx (3): 940–2. doi:10.2466/pms.1985.60.3.940. PMID 3927257. S2CID 6158584.
^ Grigorenko, Elena L.; Klin, Ami; Pauls, David 50.; Senft, Riley; Hooper, Catalina; Volkmar, Fred (2002-02-01). "A Descriptive Study of Hyperlexia in a Clinically Referred Sample of Children with Developmental Delays". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 32 (one): 3–12. doi:10.1023/A:1017995805511. ISSN 0162-3257. PMID 11916330. S2CID 20220209.
^ Harper, Douglas. "hyper-". Etymonline . Retrieved 2020-05-25 .
^ Harper, Douglas. "dyslexia". Etymonline . Retrieved 2020-05-25 .
^ Brown, Rebecca Williamson. "Hyperlexia: Related to Vision and Language Issues". NLDline . Retrieved 12 February 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lee, Sung Hee; Hwang, Mina (i August 2014). "Word and nonword processing without meaning support in Korean-speaking children with and without hyperlexia". Reading and Writing. 28 (2): 217–238. doi:ten.1007/s11145-014-9522-3. S2CID 143655030.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wong, W.; Weekes, B.; Iao, L.; To, K.; Su, I. (October 2013). "Is Reading Aloud Semantically Mediated in Chinese Hyperlexia?". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 94: 153–154. doi:ten.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.075.
^ ^a ^b Kim, Immature-Suk (29 June 2008). "The foundation of literacy skills in Korean: the relationship between letter-name knowledge and phonological sensation and their relative contribution to literacy skills". Reading and Writing. 22 (eight): 907–931. doi:10.1007/s11145-008-9131-0. S2CID 146180409.
^ Suzuki, T; Itoh, S; Hayashi, M; Kouno, Chiliad; Takeda, K (October 2009). "Hyperlexia and ambient echolalia in a case of cerebral infarction of the left anterior cingulate cortex and corpus callosum". Neurocase. 15 (5): 384–9. doi:x.1080/13554790902842037. PMID 19585352. S2CID 40527124.

Farther reading [edit]

Gilman, Priscilla (2012). The Anti-Romantic Child: A Memoir of Unexpected Joy. Harper Perennial. ISBN978-0061690280.
Newman, TM; Macomber, D; Naples, AJ; Babitz, T; Volkmar, F; Grigorenko, EL (April 2007). "Hyperlexia in children with autism spectrum disorders". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 37 (4): 760–74. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0206-y. PMID 17048093. S2CID 23401685.
Lamônica, DA; Gejão, MG; Prado, LM; Ferreira, AT (2013). "Reading skills in children diagnosed with hyperlexia: instance reports". Codas. 25 (four): 391–5. doi:x.1590/S2317-17822013000400016. PMID 24408490.
Treffert, Darold (July viii, 2013). "Oops! When "Autism" Isn't Autistic Disorder: Hyperlexia and Einstein Syndrome". Scientific American Mind. Retrieved December half dozen, 2017.