Hyperlexia@GeoCities.com.
By: Shirin de Silva
Editor's note: Shirin de Silva is a successful American physician specialized in
occupational medicine, and cross-trained in safety engineering and industrial hygiene. She
is also an adult with hyperlexia.
I have just referred the parent of a probably hyperlexic three year old to your page. It occurred to me that some of the material, esp. the therapeutic games and Earobics - which I mentioned in my email to him, would be of interest to you, as well as to the parents at your site, so I am forwarding you a copy. Also, it occurs to me that your kid is at the point where some focused work on reading comprehension would probably be of help. I like the McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons In Reading, (available from the Slosson Catalog, "http://www.slosson.com/") for that purpose. My second grader now reads and writes at a solid third grade level of fluency, and has a fourth grade, fourth month level of reading comprehension.
Shirin
Shirin's letter:
It sounds like your child has hyperlexia. This is quite treatable, both by language (not speech) therapy, and by instruction in social skills. However it is likely to give you some rough years before your son is able to read and write well enough to compensate for his deficiencies with respect to speech. (He will also need a certain amount of direct instruction in order to get there.) He is likely to improve as he gets better, but he will do so faster and you will all have a happier time of it, if you work with him. Incidentally, do not let anybody test his IQ before you get him buffed to your satisfaction. IQ is not at all stable in language learning impaired kids, and I can guarantee that if you had him tested now, you would be told that he is borderline mentally retarded. This is not true. He has an excellent chance of ending up in the gifted range by adulthood. Also, this diagnosis is not the kiss of death to any ambitions which you may harbor for him; I myself was hyperlexic as a child.
There are several things which I think you should do. First, you should go look at the
material on the Hyperlexia Parents Forum
"http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/9019/hyperlexia.html", as well as the
Hyperlexia page, which is at "http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/9402/". Both will give
you a lot of practical information which you can use with your son, as well as resources to
other links. There is also a Hyperlexia Listserv, which you should join. One or both of the
resources above should have it.
Second, if your son is unwilling to go to the language therapist, I would work on his language and social skills at home. To this end, I recommend the games produced by Linguisystems "http://www.linguisystems.com/". Get their catalog. Linguisystems sells language, speech, and social skills games and materials to speech therapists, but they will also sell to parents. Furthermore, they have speech therapists on staff who can answer your questions about what games would be most appropriate for your child. Incidentally, working on these issues at home is not only more convenient, but it is a LOT cheaper than going to the language therapist.
Third, I would start using sign language with the lad when you speak to him. You need to establish a functional route of communication with him, and unfortunately, hyperlexic kids have such short auditory memories, that speech is not their language. Adding a visual component (sign) when you speak will help develop his spoken and receptive language, as well as decrease his frustration level (and the frequency of tantrums and obsessional behavior.) There are plenty of books and CD-ROMs in the better bookstores which will teach you and he how to sign. If you are not signing, you will also find it easier to communicate with him if you do so with finger puppets in your hands, acting out whatever it is you are trying to communicate, or if you point to the subjects under discussion.
Fourth, you need to stretch his auditory memory. Since he does well with computers, I would use Earobics on him. "http://www.cogcon.com" It is designed for his age group. You probably want to have some kind of an reward system for working on it, as he is likely to find it difficult.
Fifth, regardless of the apparently normal hearing test, make sure that his audiologist screens him for CAPD. This needs to be done in a soundproof room, with varying levels of added background noise. It is just too damn common, and too treatable to allow to go unfixed, and it is a common cause of short auditory attention, and garbled speech. (The kids are speaking the words the way they hear them.) When he is older, (at six years) I would have him screened for the Fast Forword program http://www.fastforword.com. If he has an auditory sequencing deficit, this is just the thing for fixing it.
Sixth, I would start formally teaching him how to read. He is obviously more than ready
for it, and he will be the sort who learns more from reading than from speech.
Furthermore, reading and writing will help him learn to speak better. At this age, I
recommend the First Reader "www.firstreader.com" for reading instruction. He is likely
to enjoy learning to read, so this should not be too difficult for you both. After he learns,
you WILL have to work on comprehension with him, however, because although he will be
able to word-call highly complex stuff, his reading comprehension will track his listening
comprehension, especially at first. Nevertheless, the visual aspect of written language will
help him learn spoken language, and he will eventually get where he needs to be. He is
likely to enjoy Singalong Songs-type videos, and the combination of written and spoken
words will help develop his language. Also, shows of the Barney variety, where the
characters speak slowly, and do not do anything really unexpected will be of more value to
him than Sesame Street-type shows, (or the quick-cut, micro-attention span commercial
TV.) With respect to books, he needs highly visual picture books, with simple language,
where the pictures help him make sense of the text. Dr. Seuss would be preferable to
Mother Goose, or Peter Rabbit.
Shirin
I want to express a special "Thank You" to Shirin for sharing her experience with us.
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