Text comprehension problems - what is it?

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whirlingmind
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04 Apr 2013, 7:03 am

My 11yo daughter, keeps telling me that when she's reading (and also it has happened when she has listened to the TV sometimes too, and occasionally tells me what I said doesn't make sense) that she reads stuff and that she "sort of understands it but doesn't" and needs to re-read it often a few times to be able to work out what it means.

She is highly articulate and intelligent (being assessed for AS) and above age in most, if not all academic areas, so it's not a learning disability. She is hyperlexic as she was reading before the age of 5, learned to read almost overnight and has always been advanced in reading.

This is something she said she never used to get. She is frustrated with it, and I have Googled to try to see what it could be but as it's quite a vague description I can't seem to come up with anything relevant.

I did wonder some sort of dyslexia, she did reverse her characters when she was little, but apparently that is normal and she doesn't meet most of the criteria for that anyway.

What could this be? With heavy academic material I too have to re-read, or when lots of long words are used in a sentence together, but these are normal children's chapter books and when she showed me an example of something she had to re-read I couldn't see why she would have not understood it first time. She said it happens a lot now.

Any ideas?


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Anomiel
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04 Apr 2013, 7:51 am

I re-read things a lot. Often it is to memorize, or delight in some especially well made argument. Often it's to read from several different perspectives, or trying to figure out exactly what their unsaid meaning or motives are as it's not intuitive. I read very fast and it's very easy, so it's not like it takes much effort.
Sometimes I re-read if I get distracted thinking hard about other things and read faster than I keep up with actually decoding the words in the first place, but only when I'm exhausted (like today). It's not a problem understanding the meaning of the words as the problem happens before the words are even registered. Maybe she's not focused? I think this might be an ADHD thing. Also sleep-deprivation can give some of the same symptoms as ADHD anyway. Is she getting enough sleep?
It never happens due to there being academic words, or lacking understanding of "hard" words as that's not were the failure happens, for me at least.
I also use subtexts for everything I watch, as I have a hard time registering/decoding speech, even though the issue is neither with my ears nor with my understanding of the words used.
If you want to search for more info the name for that is Auditory processing disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_p ... g_disorder and it's fairly common in autistics.
Here's another link which sums it up:
http://deafness.about.com/od/hearingbas ... essing.htm
(Also a funny coincidence that this links also states that it's fairly common so... It probably is)



whirlingmind
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04 Apr 2013, 7:17 pm

Thanks Anomiel. It could be related to sleep, when I asked her she thought there might be a connection. She has really bad executive dysfunction and can spend hours in the bathroom before going to bed (despite my best efforts with a big egg timer etc!) so it could be that.


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Keni
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05 Apr 2013, 1:04 am

I noticed when my kids hit puberty they seemed to struggle with some academic things that hadn't been an issue before.
Maybe the brain is taken up with hormones and growing, and concentration suffers?
I know my memory was hopeless in early pregnancy from hormones.



Anomiel
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05 Apr 2013, 2:26 am

whirlingmind wrote:
Thanks Anomiel. It could be related to sleep, when I asked her she thought there might be a connection. She has really bad executive dysfunction and can spend hours in the bathroom before going to bed (despite my best efforts with a big egg timer etc!) so it could be that.


Haha I did that too... Privacy + books...
And I am pretty much nocturnal so I could barely manage to get enough sleep as long as I was in school, as it starts too early.
Anyway I read a bit about hyperlexia, and apparently not understanding speech is usual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlexia wrote:
Some hyperlexics, however, have trouble understanding speech.

and
http://aya-katz.hubpages.com/hub/Reading-Comprehension-and-the-Hyperlexic-Child wrote:
"Reading can be broken down into two separate processes: (1) decoding the written symbols into words pronounced by the vocal apparatus and (2) making out the meaning of the discourse through an interpretation of the content in view of the context.

Children with dyslexia have trouble with the the first process. Children with hyperlexia have trouble with the second. In the most extreme cases, a hyperlexic child can read any text, of whatever level of difficulty, with perfect fluency but no comprehension."


I think that's wrong in one major way (also that article is so shamey). My own inability to sometimes register written words comes from the same thing that makes it hard for me to understand speech. I do have comprehension, and your daughter obviously has comprehension as you mentioned she's doing well in school, it's just glitchy sometimes when the words doesn't register properly for whatever reason. I don't know the cause, or if you should worry, but at least you know it's something that isn't unusual if you're hyperlexic.

And then also, being able to fluently read words you do not yet know the definition of, is not something they should shame with their "lack of comprehension"-thing. I didn't know other people couldn't? How are you supposed to be able to teach yourself if you get stuck at the things you do not yet know?