Early language learning profiles of young children with autism: Hyperlexia and its subtypes

Abstract

This study utilized a standardized and comprehensive computer-aided language assessment tool to identify the early learning characteristics (e.g., hyperlexia) of young children with autism. The tool consisted of six subtests: decoding, homographs, auditory vocabulary comprehension, visual vocabulary comprehension, auditory sentence comprehension, and visual sentence comprehension. Thirty-five children with ASD between the ages of 4 and 6 from Tao-Yuan County in Taiwan participated in the study. Fifteen children with ASD whose decoding performance was 1 standard deviation above the norm of age-matched typically developing children were identified as hyperlexic and selected for further analysis. Five potential hyperlexic subtypes of language learning profiles emerged from this group of children with ASD. This study revealed the heterogeneous nature of language learning characteristics of young children with autism. Such findings have important implications for preschool teachers and other early interventionists who seek to develop specific strategies that capitalize on the learning strengths of young children with ASD.