Welcome to Hyperlexia III

Identified letters at around 18 m. Simple site words by age 3 Very simple reading by 4 At age 5 he can read chapter books such as treehouse detective series meant meant for 2nd grade with about 95% accuracy.

Everything is treated like a site word. If it's close to a word he knows he will incorrectly replace with a similar word. He can sound out a word if you walk him through it but makes no effort on his own to do so.

Very frustrated (will just stop reading and shut down) if he hits a word thet doesn't match a pattern he knows (e.g. a non English Transliterated word)

Does have some basic comprehension of what he just read. You can ask him a basic question like "what is the boys name"

Has some other behaviors that aren't neurotypcial (no loud noises , unusual social interactions(likes talking to everyone and has good conversation but ignores cues if people dont want to talk to him, bad fine motor, sensory seeking)

Hi everyone,

I apologise if I am on the wrong subreddit for this post.

I am looking for some advice on what I may potentially have (19f) as I cannot find much about the discrepancies between autism and hyperlexia on the internet.

I taught myself to read at 3 years old and was reading everything I saw out loud. I don't remember having a fascination with letters and numbers. I was (beyond) the highest reading level in primary (elementary) school throughout its duration, and consistently scored extremely well in reading, spelling, grammar and reading comprehension tests (spelling was my biggest strength by far out of these, but I was still good at all of them). I continued to be good at English and mathematics in high school also, consistently getting good grades in those subjects (highest-level English and second-highest mathematics).

However, ever since a young age, I have displayed some behaviours which may be consistent with autism, including but not limited to:

• lacking a sense of personal space, I have corrected this behaviour since but I still like to get very close to others with whom I am comfortable, this also included going into siblings' bedrooms and touching their stuff,
• walking on tiptoes as a kid,
• always feeling "different" from other people, even going as far as to think that I may have been adopted (obviously not true),
• not liking eye contact as it makes me uncomfortable, this has only gotten worse over time,
• connecting better and making closer and longer-lasting friendships with other neurodivergent peers, consistent throughout my whole life,
• struggling with friendships (being taken advantage of, couldn't tell the difference between "nice" vs nice, feeling left out, confusing friends with acquaintances), this has carried through my whole life,
• stimming (hair sucking, playing with book pages, singing/humming, tapping etc), I have collected more stims as I have grown older so they haven't gone away except for the hair one,
• sensitivities (mostly sound and taste related, don't like loud noises and certain flavours/textures), has been consistent throughout my life,
• hyperfixations/special interests, have remained throughout life,
• perfectionism (lifelong),
• emotional dysregulation (lifelong), and others.

If these behaviours had disappeared over time then I would be more likely to suspect Hyperlexia III; but since they have either intensified or maintained up until, and including, my university years, I am starting to wonder if I am on the spectrum as well. Furthermore, autism is in my family, with my sister having been diagnosed at a young age, as well as my brother and dad potentially having autism also (suspected but undiagnosed).

Sorry for the lack of brevity in my post, however if you could leave any advice I would greatly appreciate it! :)

Thank you and have a great morning/afternoon/evening/night! :D

What are the good resources on this? I have always had an extreme ability for language. I taught myself to read when I was two by looking at the letters that corresponded to the sounds my mom made as she read to me. I even remember being scared to learn how to read because I knew that once I learned how to read, there would be no going back to the idyllic world of illiteracy.

I’ve shocked even myself at my language abilities. I was consistently told, by almost every teacher, that I was the best Spanish student they ever had. I went to Brazil and became fluent in Portuguese in 5 weeks. I think there will be more abilities I uncover.

Yet I struggle with auditory processing and generally having to understand information when presented in a way that isn’t orderly. I have a feeling these things impact me more than I realize but I’m not sure how yet. I was never diagnosed, as my parents and teachers just saw me as gifted. What are the good resources for reading more about this?

I have a 20 month old. He's speech delayed (only has one verbal word), but his receptive communication seems to be on track. These are things he's been able to do since he's been 18 months.

If I ask him where a letter is, he can identify a lot of the alphabet and makes the right sound for some of them.

He knows how to spell simple words I've shown him with his magnetic letters, like 'up', 'no', and 'hi'. Although, recently he's started to only spell them backwards.

If I ask him to point to a certain word in a book, he'll be able to do it for some words (like 'moo', 'beep', 'baa', 'cow').

If I ask him to point to different numbers from 1 - 10, he'll point them out, but sometimes get them wrong.

And he loooves books.

Besides the letters, he also can identify any colour I ask him to consistently and a ton of shapes - I don't know if this falls in a similar category as hyperlexia. It feels similar because it's related to labeling more abstract concepts.

He doesn't know the order of his numbers or alphabet, though.

I'm not sure if all this is within the realms of typical development or if it's likely to be hyperlexia. The speech delay has always made me more vigilant about autism signs, although he doesn't seem to display anything else.

Would love to know what your kids were like at his age if you can remember.

Hi! I have a 4yo who hasn't been able to be officially diagnosed yet, but hyperlexia is pretty much a given. He does this thing that I haven't been able to find anything about online. If he ever used to like something a lot (tv show, song, book), he would start to detest it. We couldn't have it on or read it for his little brother without him crying or shouting no or taking the book away/ begging the show to be turned off, etc. This has gotten a lot milder in the last year, but it's something that I've been very curious about the cause of. Thanks, everyone!

I used to draw in the air a lot as a kid and kinda stopped eventually. I'm not sure I stopped entirely though. But I remember my dumb ass dad judging me from it.

In fact, the reason I even looked this up right now is because I'm eating breakfast with my parents and they're watching a horror movie about a kid that sees an imaginary teddy bear. My dad tells my mom I used to draw in the air and was basically mocking me and I can tell he's implying I'm crazy.

When asked what I used to draw I told him anything... that I wanted to draw and had no pencil and paper on hand with me.

I'm reading about this now because I didn't know it was an actual thing with a name. It seems to stem from anxiety? That's something I've always had and still have because since I was like 5, I've been biting my nails, I shake my legs a lot (even when I'm alone watching TV or something).

I just wanted to get some information from you guys. It continues to suck that my father is an uneducated dumb ass that thinks he's always right and time and time again I prove him wrong. I'd move out but the cost of living here by myself is too much and I wouldn't have enough to enjoy the few hobbies I have. I would basically have to live pay check to pay check just to get my own apartment and I would feel miserable like that. So I'd rather rent at my parents. I avoid my dad when he's annoying. Although just his presence can be annoying because I've been shamed about living with them because I'm in my mind 30s. Sorry for the off topic rant.

edit: I'm confused now. google says drawing in the air with your fingers is hyperlexia but it always says hyperlexia are people that excell at decoding words, etc. I don't think I'm like that at all.

I posted this in r/toddlers, but this might be a better fit...

My two year old loves numbers and the alphabet. He can count from 1 to 20 and back down. For fun, i will often hold a random number up fingers up and he will continue counting from whatever number of fingers we started at.

He is also obsessed with letters and will spend hours lining up his alphabet puzzle in order or begin reciting them aloud. If he sees a sign with typograghy, he will begin calling out the letters on it.

I discovered the term "hyperlexia" online. I'm also reading that this could be considered a disability with delays on verbal processing and puzzle solving. (Obviously, I'm posting here in the hope that you may educate me more on this) So far, i have not seen any of those indicators. He loves legos, and puzzles. Makes eye contact, understands pointing and has a good vocabulary of shapes, colors and requests. But he's also my first, so i have no idea what is normal.

Has anyone else experienced this? How best can i support his development, and should i have him looked at by a professional?

I’m super hyperlexic and 37f. I have such a hard time with people. I score 32 on the autism quotient. Does that mean I just don’t get it? I am as good as I can be, but do I smell autistic or something? People are ruthless with me. Can I get some advice?

Hello, I just found this sub and it’s been so fascinating to read through! My almost 5 year old is hyperlexic and I believe he has hyperlexia type 3 because I see that he’s extremely social (he’s actually my most touchy and affectionate child out of my 4 kids) but is in fact behind on social skills. He was also a late talker. My question is, would he qualify for an IEP in school based off of just having hyperlexia and no autism? I’m actually not ruling out autism either by the way, We have an appointment coming up for a referral. I chose not to put him in public pre k and he was homeschooled along with his siblings, but my husband really wants him in public kinder this fall. I fought hard against it because we’ve always homeschooled, but he’s pushing hard for it. But I would feel much more comfortable if he was set up with an IEP going in. I just worry he’s going to be bored out of his mind in kinder.

For more background, my husband is autistic and ocd, I have adhd, oldest child is nonverbal autistic, second child adhd and ocd, this child i’m mentioning is my third, and my littlest is 2 and showing mild signs of autism. So I mean it wouldn’t be surprising if my 5 year old was autistic on top of hyperlexic. Other things he does: stimming hums/almost makes these beat box sounds with his voice and mouth, air drawing, very big frustrations and meltdowns when messing up something he’s writing, crafting, working on, etc. and he loves logos. Thanks for reading all this!

My son is 9-years-old, diagnosed with autism, and nonverbal. We had issues getting him proper schooling in Chicago, and had a homeschool program that just wasn't working. We moved to Indiana in 2023 and after his IEP was set up I have quickly realized he is far more intelligent than I knew.

My son can solve math problems at a higher level than we thought, and can add and subtract double digit numbers quicker than many adults I know - within a second or less. His reading comprehension and memory is impeccable. His new program is remote so he now chooses images to match words he silently reads and types out responses after silently reading e-books. I've noticed he even knows words that are quite obscure, and can use context clues well, such as determining which image was "Moppet" when given four images - it was the name of a character from a book we hadn't read yet, but he could tell the other images were incorrect. At nine, and with far less reading experience (in school) than the typical child his age, he has sped through hundreds of sight words without getting even one incorrect. Despite being non-verbal, he sometimes reads faster than I do and I'm 33 with a fairly high IQ (148 last I checked). He is able to silently read quizzes following the e-books he has and gets 100% on every quiz as well, meaning his comprehension is very good. His problem solving skills are also ridiculously good and have been since he was very small. He once picked a key lock with a plastic spoon and broke into a padlocked display case at age 2 1/2. lol. He's got weird skills.

Am I right to think he may have a form of hyperlexia despite being non-verbal? He isn't 100% non-verbal, but he is nearly. He struggles to express himself verbally and repeats beginning syllables (coocoo for cookie, stops at "can" for "candy", etc), struggling to combine different sounds into words. For those who have had similar experiences, how can I help him cultivate these skills while he is still non-verbal?

Thank you for any input or advice.

Hello all, I’m 28F and autistic. As I’ve been processing my childhood since being diagnosed, I realize I experienced hyperlexia since I was young. This is new for me in the terms of their being a word to describe my education experience my entire life. My mom and I openly talk about how I learn something instantaneously just by seeing someone else execute such action, reading at a young age, etc. I struggled with comprehension of what I read and I got a tutor and speech pathologist in school. Spelling and math equations were extremely easy to me in school. I also have perfect pitch and taught myself how to play the keyboard/ piano since 8.

Some things I now notice since researching that makes sense to my loved ones (family, close friends) and I:

Alert at birth. My eyes were wide open when I was born. I looked around at everything and have baby pictures where I’m fascinated with my surroundings. It even looks like I appear to be waving in pictures under a year.

I babbled to my mom and dad when I was as young as four months old. I mimicked words they said by six months. I spoke full sentences by a year.

I could sort colors and shapes by 15 months.

I could read books by memorizing them somewhere between 18 months and 2 years. The first book I could read was the hungry caterpillar.

My memory is like a steal trap. My first vivid memory is around 11 months. I can remember sitting in a high chair at a restaurant with my mom and dad down near the beach. I also remember playing underneath my kitchen table and playing with the chair rungs and holding onto them so I could stand up.

I didn’t like to crawl, because I didn’t like how my knees felt. So I learned to pull myself up by using chairs and the coffee table in the living room. I would walk around the coffee table, get to the middle of the living room and scoot across to the other side to get to the other coffee table.

I could spell words by age three. I knew how to say the letters of the alphabet.

I loved learning Spanish in school, and I never had to study, I could look at a page in a textbook and remember it.

I know logos are a common interest among hyperlexics, but I’m trying to figure out why exactly that is. If you’re an adult with hyperlexia, were you drawn to logos as a child? Can you explain why? -the thought process, what you got out of it, etc. Did you just like how they looked or was there more to it than that? The more detail, the better.

I’m trying to figure out if logos could potentially provide a visual learning strategy that I can incorporate into teaching my son unrelated things, but I need to understand what his brain sees/says when he looks at logos. Hopefully that makes sense. He turned 3 a couple months ago, and one of his most prized possessions is a 600 page Taschen book called Logo Brands Global Designs.

Hello everyone on this tiny sub, I am continuing my journey with sharpening my hyperlexia skills which I thought were far lost, for those who don't know, this is my second post, I am a neurodivergent author/translator from Morocco, I'm just posting this to update, as I read this evening The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, I am considering reading Pym while writing my novel, wish me luck.

Just came here to say that I appreciate this show on PBS. My 4 yr old is Hyperlexic and obsessed with words/letters/numbers; and LOVES this show. I kinda want to send the creator a fan letter.

My almost five year old son is hyperlexic, he taught himself to read at age three. He is in public full day pre-k and we’re still discovering his strengths and weaknesses. Recently he’s become interested in learning Spanish and we’ve been doing Duolingo every day. We don’t live in an area where Spanish is really predominant and I’m not fluent myself. Just curious if anyone else’s kid was interested in learning foreign languages at this young age? Would the hyperlexia help him pick it up more quickly?

These new words are called neologisms. I made a list of every new word my son made along the way.

Drawing a Blank By Emily Iland

This book focuses on reading comprehension. Reading is made up of a bunch of different skills, the one hyperlexia kids are strongest at is called decoding. They will usually score on testing very high say 99.9 percentile In decoding. They will score really low typically on reading comprehension.

I haven’t talked with her in a while, but you can look her up online and go from there. Hope it helps.

I am diagnosed. Hyperlexia, first and foremost, is a learning disability. At least for me.

I learned how to read by myself when I was around 3. At 5, I read my first full book in a day. By 8, I was clearing through middle grade 30 book series in a book a day. In a month, I read the entire Magic Treehouse series. I have always scored college level or higher at English scores in school, but i tested below 7th grade in Math. Other subjects are not measured.

What it means, in essence, is that I greatly struggle to hear and understand what I'm witnessing. In math class, I had to listen over and over to the same lecture to grasp what a normal person would understand by listening once. I need to hear a topic from multiple angles before I fully can comprehend what it is. My general comprehension is much lower.

Right now, I'm a student. I'm getting schoolwork done. But after a point, the information just does not stick. I don't understand what I'm hearing. But once I do understand it, i typically have a large vocabulary and can describe it in detail. This means I either get A or F, but no in between.

For those of you more familiar with the disability end of this condition, how can I cope while doing my studies?

My son is hyperlexic. He started reading full sentences at age two and a half years. He is now 3 and a half. He can read children's books and also is good with numbers. He was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD. He has improved a lot in the last 4 months as he started attending pre-school has started speaking more and is becoming more social.

During one of our meetings with his teachers, she mentioned that he is reading at 1st grade level and has a photographic memory (for eg. he knows all US states and can point to them on a blank map, recites full books). She said that we should not push him to read and try to focus on social skills only. They said that he is already advanced and might get bored when he goes to school, since he would already know all the things being taught. She also mentioned that sometimes they might also ask to skip grades.

That scares me, since he is still not developed in terms of social skills. I wanted to ask for people here with hyperlexia, were you asked to skip grades in school? Did that help/hurt you in any way?

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Hi! My son does not have an official diagnosis of hyperlexia but has demonstrated some traits including:

EDIT: he can read at 5. In addition...

-Learning the alphabet at 18m and identifying letters

-Intense fascination with "factual" topics such as the name, order, and facts about each planet

-Air writing

-Echolalia

-Mental math

Right now he is in a "Transitional Kindergarten" since he turned 5 at the end of September and couldn't go into public K.

We are lucky in that our jobs can support a private school arrangement if need be. For parents or people with hyperlexia, what kind of school settings helped you thrive? We are near a Quaker school that has mixed age classrooms, we have traditional schools, outdoor schools, and pretty strong public schools. Just want to set up our son for as much success as possible and curious what types of schooling work best for others!

Hi guys!

My son just turned 2 - he is such a cool kid and has been showing signs of being super advanced.

Here are some things about him:

• super alert at birth
• consciously smiling at 2 weeks old
• first word at 9 months
• incredible memory
• could sort colours and shapes by 11 months
• knew/said all colours of the rainbow, and could identify all simple shapes & lots of complex ones by 12 months
• learned/identified the alphabet and numbers 1-20 by 14/15 months
• began doing 6 piece puzzles at 15 months, then rapidly progressed to 30 piece puzzles by 16/17 months
• speaking over 150 words by 18 months
• from 18 months until now (2yrs) he has learned phonics, simple addition/subtraction, can do 60 piece puzzles, knows all the planets in our solar system, over 10 sub species of whales, sharks, and other ocean creatures, several different species of dinosaurs (says them perfectly too which is wild).
• He definitely understands us, word meanings, and uses all words in proper context, and currently speaks in 5-7 word sentences.
• overall, he has always been social, affectionate, communicative, and advanced passed all milestones by at least double his age. He has been screened for autism by our paediatrician who says she does not suspect any Autism.

I have read a lot about hyperlexia, and being that my son is so young, I’m just trying to learn as much as I possibly can about him, about what possibilities there are. Can children be hyperlexic and gifted? Are there major differences between hyperlexia and giftedness? He loves letters/numbers, and reading signs, licence plates, but I wouldn’t say he’s obsessed. He has so many interests and continues to learn so much every day!

Thanks in advance for your insight! X

My husband is autistic, I have ADHD, we have three kids together. Two boys, 7 and 6 and a little girl who just turned 2. Boy 1 has autism and CVI. Boy 2 is autistic/ADHD - hyperlexic as part of his autism, reads on 2nd or 3rd grade level with only about 1st grade comprehension. Baby girl had a mild speech delay and can read really well. Like, 1st grade level, with a lot of comprehension. She is slated for a developmental evaluation on February 1st. Baby girl shows great socialization skills and is even slated to graduate from speech therapy soon. Other than some mild echolalia, she shows no other signs of autism than the hyperlexia. Anybody in this subreddit who is hyperlexic but not autistic? Or is hyperlexia in and of itself reason enough to suspect she will be autistic like her dad and brothers?

Edit to add: Fem presenting autistic or just hyperlexia III - she is loved exactly as she is. Just wondering if I should go ahead and count us as having 3/3 aspie babies 🤣

Hi y’all, I have both hyperlexia and ADHD.

I’ve noticed a pretty obnoxious trend on videos which seems to have started with TikTok but has now also infected YouTube, where they’ll have captions baked into the video where it’s just a rapid flash of a handful of words at a time with the timing of the people speaking.

I find these incredibly difficult to process, because the words just grab my eyes and attention and they’re not actually readable since they’re just a quick succession of words in isolation rather than complete sentences. And they often use a cutesy font that’s not easy to read quickly anyway. I can’t imagine these captions helping accessibility for anyone, and they absolutely hurt my ability to comprehend the video.

Does anyone else have this problem and know of anything I can link people to which explains why it’s a bad idea to make captions in this way? (Accessibility guidelines, research papers, etc.)

Glad to post on this sub, I (22M) am hyperlexic neurodivergent, I am a former gifted child (burnt out adult now lol) I have ASD, ADHD, OCD and depression among other disorders, unfortunately my hyperlexic abilities are fading and I want to restore them to the good old days (I'm talking about finishing a full-length novel in a day or two), I'm struggling and a bit burnt-out, can anyone on this sub help me.

I have been diagnosed with hyperlexia, and there’s this weird thing I do where when I think of a song I count the syllables and beats. So I will use my thumbs and I want the song or part of the song (such as verse, chorus, etc.) to end on the opposite thumb of when I started. Only started recently. A family with a kid who also has it says that he has a thing where he has to count the syllables in sentences and gets distressed if they aren’t in a perfect pattern, which is sorta similar but also kinda different. (I don’t get as distraught if the song ends on the left thumb instead of the right). So is this a symptom or just a coincidence? I don’t know.

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this ask but was hoping to connect with any families around London who would know about hyperlexia and way forward. GP evaluations are taking endless times :( Not had an evaluation so far

Past week we discovered that our kid while reading everything coming his way is probably not understanding much

1. He started book reading at 2.5, was born premature by 20 days, lower birth weight
2. Has echolalia. Repeats what we, other kids say
3. Gives and shows affection, loves his cuddly toys too
4. Loves going out to park, nursery
5. Earlier used to do humming when walking fast
6. Is scared of falling and takes a lot of self care. Still does not hops or jumps unless holding something to prevent him from falling
7. Cannot start conversations, usually would whimper or cry and then we nudge and ask what he wants to which he replies in a fixed manner 'i want .....'
8. Has night terrors and often wants to see the timer on microwave
9. Finger writing in air but he has just started doing it and we believe there is a rhyme which asks to write with finger in air

10.loves sitting around in group of kids in nursery but does not start a conversation himself 11.answers properly to questions like what color is the car, what color is the flower, how many onions in basket etc 12. Sometimes he reads license plates of parked card but many times does not.. 13. Understand simple instructions 'pass the remote', bring the tissue, open the door etc 14. Repeats sentences from what he sees later but we thought as he was a late speaker he is learning via echolalia.

Any body who is in or around london and is a similar case who would like to connect and team up?

For those who would comment below re the confusion, appreciate your advice on the above symptoms in advance. Much thanks

Hello! I have a 3 year old who has shown signs of hyperlexia: obsession with letters, numbers, colors and even signs (stop, yield). Several occasions we hear him whisper the world on the page. More recently when we read to him and ask him where something is, he points accurately to the word (as opposed to the item).

My confusion is that he's not speaking. I'd almost say he's nonverbal but at times he will surprise us by saying randomly "ABC" and then a string of jibberish. Or colors and numbers - he will say some of it, softly, and then we never hear it again.

He only started babbling at the end of year 2. Yet he understands everything you ask of him: ask him for a hug and he happily gives it, he looks at things we point towards, he will pick up items we ask him to grab. But speaking is almost impossible.

When he gets frustrated he can do these high pitched sounds. To get our attention he will laugh loudly so we laugh back which makes him smile. Or he will tap us and point. He was also physically behind (struggles to use spoons and forks but with therapy he's much better, holding multiple toys at once, climbing with stronger balance).

My question is if anyone has a child showing a similar delay as he does? We had him tested for autism with a specialist and was told he didn't (which I'm not truly sure I buy). But my thing is speaking - I am practicing with him daily when he returns from school but I fear no improvement.

Any help is appreciated.

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Hi, I am a 41F hyperlexic adult. I only recently found out what this is called and would like to make friends with others and compare experiences to learn more. Send me a message if you would like to talk about it with me.