Just wanted to introduce myself, and my son. I'm here for support and to hopefully connect with people that can help me to better understand how to parent my son. I'm NT, but I have a family full of engineers, scientists, and musicians-- lots of very analytic, introverted perfectionists-- and between us I'm sure we have some of the traits in the broad autism phenotype.
I'm mom to a just-turned-3 year old who seems (to me) to be a more or less typical hyperlexic. I have found more than a little conflicting information about hyperlexia, and according to the most stringent definitions he many not qualify (he's always known that letters were for making words, and that words were for naming and labeling things), BUT he has substantial communication problems despite having a large vocabulary. In particular, he has poor pragmatic language skills, including serious problems with asking/ answering questions, reduced/ delayed body language, and poor conversational eye contact (although good eye contact in other contexts). He has intense interest in letters, numbers, and anything else that can be similarly systematized, organized, or ordered-- colors and how to mix them, days and months, telling time, polygons by numbers of sides, who's a girl and who's a boy, etc, etc, etc. He has been able to read (as in sound out words) since 2 1/2, and had some sight words before then. He understands place value when reading large numbers ( at least into the tens of millions). Until the last month or so I had never seen him show any social interest in kids his own age or younger, though he has always been interested in older children (especially boys) and in any adult that's made an effort to engage him. He has begun watching younger kids recently, but has not yet made any real overtures.
His early (first two years) language milestones were on time or early (but with startling memorization skills). In retrospect I realize he had little body language, but I didn't really notice at the time because we did Baby Sign and he learned that just fine. Around two his language development became very scripted. He also started acting out scenes from videos and books around that time, and his alphabet interest turned into a real obsession. Now I realize that that intensity was him learning to read, since it began to subside after he cracked the code at 2 1/2. Currently his number interest in much more apparent than his letter interest, and I assume that the same thing is happening-- he can count accurately, but doesn't yet really understand addition and subtraction. I think once he gets it his constant drive to count everything will go away. He still recites and acts out books, songs, and videos all the time.
I can't really see any other spectrum-type problems besides the ones I've already mentioned. He was a strong, easy, alert, non-fussy baby. He has no apparent sensory issues, no physical quirks or stimming, doesn't have any problems AT ALL with deviating from routines, no tantrums, no rigidity, no sleep or diet problems. He does recite things to himself constantly, but it seems to be a pleasurable activity for him, much like singing in the shower, not an anxiety-driven thing. He is spaced out a lot, though.
I know that hyperlexia is considered to be on the autism spectrum (or just related to it), and I'm aware that his early development does seem to match common developmental patterns for Aspergers kids. But I've read a number of Aspergers parenting books, and my son just doesn't seem to resemble those kids at all. Even though he is very intense and focused in some ways, in general he's just, fundamentally, an easygoing, adaptable kid. So, though I am quite willing to accept that he's probably on the autism spectrum, I don't really get it. To me it seems to be something different, something that maybe looks the same right now, but has different underlying causes (whatever they may be). Maybe a language processing or auditory processing problem. I'm quite possibly wrong. In any case, I am interested in getting to know anyone and everyone that has an opinion on hyperlexia and what it is/ isn't, as well as anyone that can advise me about how best to nurture a child with communication problems.
21 Apr 2011, 2:53 am
