There seems like some controversy about whether hyperlexia is part of asd, some people have hyperlexia as part of asd and some have it alone and none of the so called experts seem to agree on whether it is or isn't.  I have hyperlexia read fluently at 2 and have been dx with asd as I fit criteria, but some of the difficulties i have are a bit different to classic aspergers eg auditory processing., which means i process what i hear later and have rote responses to conversations because i don't process the information and process at very deep level reach conclusion that i'm not able to demonstrate ot others but find conclusions i made 20 years earlier get discovered by someone else.

My son is different he has autism late talker but same auditory processing, he could play chess at 3 from memory i presume i can't play now, it is interesting that his cognitive strength and weakness are opposite to mine.

We both have had serious mental health problems undx which is why I have had to find out everything I can on the areas of brain affected and how to improve functioning. and we exacerbate eachother, it was the same with my father who was classic aspergeres but dx with manic depression as teenager

I'm interested in others thoughts on this

Not all autistic individuals have hyperlexia, and not all children with hyperlexia have autism, although evidence shows that hyperlexia is a phenomenon that is observed with greater frequency in Autistic Spectrum people than amongst NTs.

I strongly feel that hyperlexia is an autism spectrum condition.

The paper below would seem to support Amy's view:

Am J Ment Retard. 1993 Jul;98(1):84-92.

Autism with hyperlexia: a distinct syndrome?

Tirosh E, Canby J.

Hannah Khoushy Child Development Center, Bnei Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.

Family and medical histories, autistic and dysmorphic features, and neurological status of 5 children with autism and hyperlexia and 5 sex and IQ-matched children with autism and no hyperlexia were compared. Results showed that the children with hyperlexia displayed more persistent echolalia, superior visual motor performance, and more favorable response to vestibular stimulation. These children performed better than did their matched controls in the physical and neurological assessment. Two of these children, one of whom had a sibling with hyperlexia, presented with macrocephaly. Both groups had a similar incidence of dysmorphic features, computerized tomographic and EEG abnormalities, and family morbidity. Results suggest that children with autism and hyperlexia probably represent part of the continuum of autism rather than a specific syndrome.

PMID: 8373566[/i]

By the way, you are very welcome here Florrie. :smile:

Thanks for responses,  intersting to hear those on spectrum views,  I have the same symptoms as asd so i've thought it probably is a sub type of some sort, but i suppose no one  exhibits the same symptoms or has the same cognitive strengths and weaknesses anyway, everyone is different on the spectrum anyway.

Yes, my dx included hyperlexia as a significant feature of my AS.  I LOVE the written word!

Alison

But is hyperlexia really a disorder? There's the rub.

I do not have hyperlexia but I have similar issues with processing auditory information. I find that I cope better if I don't even try to process a conversation in real time, just basically let the information wash over me and fall into place when it is ready to.

Am I hyperlexic? I couldn't really read til the second grade, but then I was reading Victor Hugo, kind of out of nowhere. Is that hyperlexia?

I don't think that counts as hyperlexia. I think that is more like what Temple Grandin said: that NTs learn general to specific, and Autistics learn specific to general. The actual learning process is different - at least for some of us.

I was the same. Really struggled to get a handle on reading and then in 2nd grade it suddenly fell into place and I was reading like an adult. I literally went from bottom of my class in reading to top of my class in a few months.

My son went through exactly the same thing, he was really struggling with reading, he would actually memorise a book and pretend to read it. Now he is literally top of his class as well.

So... what is hyperlexia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlexia

I may have been wrong.

Reading wikipedia on hyperlexia, I see that it says:

I think the phrase "often become early readers" is important. I had thought that you had to read very early to be considered hyperlexic. But based on the Wikipedia article it seems like this is not a concrete criteria - if you started reading at a normal age but then showed reading abilities well beyond what is expected for your age, you may well be hyperlexic.

From that description, I kind of wonder if I might be hyperlexic. I'm not sure how old I was when I started reading, but I was self-taught. I do read pretty slow, though.

Most children with hyperlexia are diagnosed as pdd or aspergers, it is commonly found in children who are considered high functioning.