The term hyperlexia was coined in 1967 and is typically characterized by four features. These include having advanced reading skills, learning to read early without being taught, having a strong preference for letters and books, and having an accompanying neurodevelopmental disorder.1

"When the term was first used, back in the 1960s, hyperlexia was specifically used to describe children with neurodevelopmental disabilities who also showed fairly excelled word-reading skills," explains Laura Justice, PhD, an expert in speech and hearing science and a distinguished professor of educational psychology at The Ohio State University. "There are different ways that hyperlexia is defined (or diagnosed), with the most common being a distinction between one’s cognitive abilities and reading abilities, such that reading abilities excel well beyond that expected based on cognition."

In other words, kids with hyperlexia are often self-taught readers who can read well above what is expected at their age but struggle to understand what they are reading. They excel in knowing how to decode written words but struggle with comprehension.

"Kids with this intense interest in letters enjoy reading words but have trouble with meaning," says Robert Naseef, PhD, a psychologist with expertise in autism that practices at Alternative Choices, an independent psychology practice in Pennsylvania. "This characteristic is common in autism. [Kids with autism] often recognize the words but struggle to comprehend the meaning of the text or the paragraph."

Overall, hyperlexia is strongly associated with autism with 84% of cases of kids with hyperlexia being identified as on the autism spectrum. Yet, only 6 to 14% of kids diagnosed with autism will have hyperlexia.1 It is also possible for hyperlexia to occur alongside other neurodevelopmental disorders.

 

Many Autistic kids are hyperlexic. They have a strong left brain and weak right brain so this is actually very common with them. This is the very reason many of them can read (left brain function) by 3 years old yet they don’t understand what they’ve read (right brain function). The left brain is good at memorizing things and is the more visual side of the brain. This is why an autistic kid may not be conversational yet they know their ABC’s, colors, can count to 100 etc long before they should be able to. The left brain isn’t even supposed to start developing till 3 years old but with autism it develops before it’s supposed to and we end up with a strong left brain weak right brain.

 

• Brain Imbalance:

x One Side of the Brain Stronger Than the Other