Is hyperlexia supposed to be worse at times?

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Is hyperlexia supposed to vary in intensity pretty randomly throughout the day?

My doctor told me I have it, does that mean I'm diagnosed? She wrote a long paper about her sessions with me saying that I had it among other things and she signed it back when I was in high school.

You might check out: http://www.hyperlexia.org/aha_what_is.html

I'm not really sure what you mean by vary in intensity, but I know if I am more stressed I have a harder time answering questions when asked verbally and etc. I would say it's all pretty constant. The better I feel, the more I might be able to do, but I think that is true for most people.

The AHA says:

2 doesn't make any sense at all. maybe they are confusing it with a possible autstic symptom. 3 is also an autistic symptom

After all, EVERYONE on the planet could have 1 with 2! What is the sense in "reading" without understanding. How could they understand the written, and not spoken.

Frankly, I haven't had that problem. I can understand any spoken words I can use or write.

Besides, hyper lexia does imply an ability ABOVE the norm.

BTW I have YET to find a person that REALLY works as well under stress. I've seen a number CLAIM they do, but they were wrong.

Steve

I've heard that some aspies have hyperlexia. I do in a the reverse: It's not that I don't understand spoken word; it's that I'm not a good speaker, since I stutter and trail off and have a lot of distractors ("um," "like," "basically..." "I mean," etc.). Despite that I'm a writer, and not a terrible one.

Hyperlexia has to do with content.

The stuttering is a common problem that may be made more likely by the autism, but will probably go away.

The "distractors" are done by nearly EVERYONE! Toast masters see getting rid of this as one of their major goals!

I think not understanding the verbal has to do with this(from the same website):
Learn expressive language in a peculiar way, echo ro memorize the sentence structure without understanding the meaning (echolalia), reverse pronouns

I do this quite a bit. Someone is talking to me and I will be able to repeat what they say back to them but I won't understand what either of us are saying. It's really wierd. If it's my boss at work, obviously I can't say "I don't understand" so I lie and I say I do. But then, after he's gone, I'll say it back to myself slowly and I can listen to myself say it and understand. It's really weird I guess, but it's true for me sometimes. This happens more often when I'm under duress of some kind. If it's just me and some people I am comfortable with, it doesn't happen as much.

About being "above the norm"...well, who really knows. I read slower when I'm reading to understand, slower than most people. However, if I do that, I have good enough recall to get a 100% on reading comprehension test(as I did in high school). I've done some speed reading tests and I've done pretty well, but I don't remember what I've read for very long that way. Usually I remember just long enough to take the test.

On speed reading tests, they will have you read a group of words at a time(sometimes a whole sentence). Each group will only appear for less than a second. Several paragraphs will flicker in that fashion and when it's done you have to answer questions. You can take a test like that at Sylvan learning centers in the USA(that's where I did it back in high school) or maybe you can download something like that off the internet.

When people get diagnosed for things, does that mean you get any proof? All the psycologist(or whatever she was) gave me was some signed statement or something...dunno... I didn't always think hyperlexic was really a plus, if you are "hyper" on that, something else is suffering?... like verbal language in this case perhaps? I think of it as if the deficiency is actually fueling the "hyper" part. Or like a blind man with a sharp sense of touch and hearing, or a deaf person with good eyesight perhaps?

This is true--and it isn't "nearly," everyone, it is everyone. Seriously, if you feel that you use an uncommon amount of place-holding words (er, um, uh, ah, eh, hey, and others, depending on dialect; I think "uh" is the most common in American English), try recording a conversation and transcribing every word or sound each person says. Spoken speech also tends to be broken up either into shorter sentences or into smaller clauses connected by conjunctions, with a lot of repetition. This is because it takes the brain a little longer to process the heard speech and so these placeholders and repetitions help the listeners to take in what the speaker is saying. [/budding linguist]

As for stuttering, I have the same problem, but that's generally related to the fact that I talk quickly and often mispronounce words. I am an excellent writer and reader--at least I think so; certainly I read extremely quickly--but I often have trouble getting words out.

novawake,

As for reading speed, that depends on MANY things! Heck, just the ability to clearly see the text could dramatically affect it. I used to read MUCH faster than I did a couple months ago Perhaps because I worked at it, etc... NOW, I read faster because I have worked at it.

Hyper has NOTHING to do with speed. Greek huper-, from huper, over, beyond. See uper in Indo-European Roots.

As for your other problems? I don't doubt they exist. Heck, one affects me a bit. I am just saying they don't all affect all that have hyperlexia.

SolaCatella.

You are probably right. I TRY to qualify things like that. Maybe there is someone that TRULY thinks before s/he speaks, isn't distracted, etc... As I said, toastmasters tries to get rid of it. They actually have like competitions where people make a speach and someone has the job of listening for every distractor, etc... When they hear one, they count it, and ring a bell/buzzer. The one with the lowest score wins.

Steve

I'm the same. (And a writer, too.) But I'm more likely to stop talking or stutter a little or stop talking altogether than fill in silences.

I didn't mean that my reading speed is fast or anything. If anything I'm just describing a reading speed test. If this gives you an idea: I mentioned I took the test at Sylvan right? Well, that is a sort of place for kids that aren't doing good in school to get help. So, I wasn't there because I was doing well if you catch my drift. And just because I can pass a test, doesn't mean much. Just because my doc dx'd me or whatever, doesn't mean anything either... I don't know that I even trust any doctor. I don't know that I find anything about myself being better that anyone...quite the contrary... So anything I mention about hyperlexia, take with a grain of salt... I've wanted to understand it because I'm told I have it, but it seems quite a bit of the information I find is conflicting with itself...

I process information much better visually. I can't ask for directions because i can't seem to process auditroy information correctly, like i just won't remember it but if i read it i probably could.
I also have a habit of not finishing sentences, mostly when i'm a bit nervous.
Conversely i do like to read alot and read alot faster (mostly due to practise) than other people i know.

Troy,

If brisbane is ANYTHING like the US, FORGET IT! Everyone has problems like that. Accents, mistakes, loss of reference points, length, complexity, nervousness, ALL add to problems even understanding where the speaker is coming from(often literally). Every once in a while, the person here is dead on, gives good landmarks, etc... Otherwise, I try to use what they said as guideline, and HOPE I make it.

Heck, a lot of manuals, etc... say the hippocampus can only store about 7 items. That may be right! That means that if you can't get items to the next stage before the eigth rolls in, your a dead duck. Almost like a computer with no ability to have the sender wait.

Steve

Ah toast masters.. yes those who have mastered the nearly impossible task of dropping their breakfast on a tile floor and having it land butter-side-up.

Sorry I just found this amusing and had to share

As for placeholders I used to use them so much between words people would start to get annoyed (or find it cute bleh) so I had to start composing the entire sentence in my mind then repeating it back in order to cut down on them.

I definetly have hyperlexia; when I was six, seven, and eight, I had an obsession with rodents, squirrels specifically, and I would go to the library at my elementary school and check out books about squirrels that were very advanced for my age at the time. Also, I enjoyed reading Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Dilbert at an early age; I somehow understood a lot of business terminology and understood why the strips were funny as well; I understood all of that at age six, seven, and eight.