Hyperlexia has often, though not always, been associated with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While the disorder is regarded as a ‘splinter skill’ - a unique skill but without much practical application - with precocious reading ability (more like barking at print) but no real understanding of what is read. It becomes a enigma in itself between superior word recognition and/or decoding and deficient reading and/or listening comprehension. In this short paper, the author has chosen to cover briefly on the three developmental phases of hyperlexia research from the awareness through recognition to conceptualization, but paid more attention on five underlying theoretical concepts of hyperlexia and the five-level symptomatic nosology of the condition of hyperlexia.

BackgroundPrecocious readers (PRs) are children who read and comprehend fluently in their native language, without receiving formal instruction. This study examined Hebrew‐speaking PRs in comparison with a group of age‐matched peers and a group of reading‐level‐matched peers. By examining Hebrew, which is a transparent orthography when it has diacritics and opaque without the diacritics, the study aimed to expand our understanding of PRs and shed light on universal and orthographic‐specific aspects of precocious reading. Additionally, language and math are both code‐based systems, yet previous studies largely neglected assessing PRs' math skills. Studying these skills can highlight the process of reading as a symbol system that needs decoding and further clarify its relationship with other symbol‐based systems.MethodsWe examined 20 PRs who were matched with 20 same‐age preschoolers. Additionally, to compare the PRs with a group exposed to formal reading instruction, we matched them with 20 older children with the same reading level. We studied the three groups' language, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, reading, writing and math skills. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine differences between the groups on these measures, controlling for nonverbal intelligence.ResultsBeyond the contribution of nonverbal intelligence, being in the PR group conferred a significant advantage over the same‐age group on almost all measured skills. The PRs scored similarly to the same reading level group on letter knowledge and phonological awareness, significantly outperformed them on word reading and nearly on math (p = .06) but scored lower than them on writing and vocabulary.ConclusionsThis study promotes the understanding of precocious reading beyond a particular orthography. It highlights reading development as an act of deciphering symbols, thereby relating it to other symbol systems such as math. Being aware of PRs' skills can help parents and educators adequately support these children.

This article reports some of the findings of a study involving 11 New Zealand4-year-old precocious readers (Margrain, 2005). The children, aged between 4:01 and 4:101 had reading ages three to nine years above their chronological age. Assessment of precocious reading abilities is discussed, including how assessment findings are influenced by the beliefs of the assessor, and choices of assessment tools. The study found that there were differences between the practices and beliefs of the researcher and parents compared to early childhood and new entrant teachers. This article provides recommendations for practice, relating toassessment practices and beliefs. These recommendations are pertinent to support working with precocious readers, but also more widely to other gifted learners.

The Neural Basis of Hyperlexic Reading: An fMRI Case Study

A mechanism of implicit lexicalized phonological recoding used concurrently with underdeveloped explicit letter-sound skills in both precocious and normal reading development

This article examines a case of a four-year-old boy presenting with hyperlexia who was seen in twice-a-week psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy over a nine-month period. Hyperlexia can be defined as a speech-language disorder with significant problems in language learning and social skills, often accompanied by a fascination with letters, patterns, numbers and logos, and precocious reading and writing. Treatment focused primarily on the boy’s psychological conflicts and relationships, rather than on implementing the typical language and education strategies for hyperlexia. Results of this treatment support the hypothesis that hyperlexia can be usefully conceptualized as a symptom arising from biological predisposition and severe emotional stress or trauma. General issues pertaining to the conceptualization, diagnosis and treatment of hyperlexia are also addressed.

This paper presents the results of a six-year longitudinal study. The focus of the study is preschool language and numeracy acquisition with specific reference to giftedness. Data were gathered from children entering school in 1995 who demonstrated high performance either in reading (precocious readers PR), numeracy (precocious mathematicians PM). or in both domains (precocious readers and mathematicians PRM). Selected findings are described in the context of a multidimensional giftedness model. Results indicate that first-graders who clearly showed accelerated reading and numeracy abilities demonstrate giftedness. These children, who were not formally instructed, showed self-initiative in language and numeracy acquisition. At the time of promotion into the secondary school in 2000. they were still among the best students in their class. The results of this study indicate that precocious reading and mathematical ability that develop true self-initiative may best predict future gifted behavior.

ABSTRACT Background. EEG research with specific clinical populations (e.g., Alzheimer's and mentally disabled) has confirmed that reduced alpha peak frequency often is associated with impaired cognitive functioning. However, research with high-functioning populations does not exist, and increased peak frequency in alpha has only been hypothesized to relate to advanced brain maturation. Methods. This study compared peak frequency in the alpha band (8.0 to 12.0 Hz) of children with precocious reading ability to that of control groups. The experimental group consisted of 15 early readers (ER). One comparison sample included 15 age-level matched (ALM) children, similar to the ER group in terms of cognitive functioning and age, but reading at grade level. A second comparison group, composed of 15 reading-level matched (RLM) children, had intelligence and reading level scores equivalent to the ER group, but was 2.5 years older. Using Lexicor NeuroSearch-24 equipment and v151 software, quantitative EEG (QEEG) da...

This paper presents an account of the literacy activities engaged in by the parents of 29 children around the time that the children were about to start school at Key Stage 1. Fifteen of the children were reading fluently before they began school and the remaining fourteen were matched for age, sex, receptive vocabulary scores, pre‐school group attended and socio‐economic family status, but not reading fluently. In order to ascertain that the fluent readers were not simply coming from homes where literacy activities were more in evidence, parents were asked to report on their own literacy activities. The data obtained indicated that there were no systematic differences in the activities of the two sets of parents. They also showed that there was a considerable amount of literacy activity evident in the homes. It is argued that, whilst the home environment is highly instrumental in nurturing literacy development, it is not enough to account for precocious reading ability.

Phonological awareness is one of the best predictors of subsequent reading in children. This study examined cognitive ability, short‐term verbal memory, and speech perception in relation to phonological awareness in above average to high IQ and average IQ third and fourth graders and prereading kindergartners. Those with higher cognitive reasoning skills, especially verbal ability, tended to score higher on tasks of phonological awareness than did those with lower reasoning skills. Among kindergartners, speech perception and verbal memory were significantly correlated with phonological awareness as well. These data suggest that children, identified as gifted using IQ scores, may also have superior phonological awareness skills which might promote subsequent above‐average to precocious reading.

Precocious literacy is a form of intellectual giftedness that occurs frequently in young children. This case study documents the emergence of reading ability in an extremely precocious reader between the ages of 2 years 7 months and 3 years 2 months. At the end of this period, the child's word recognition ability was conservatively estimated at the late first-grade level, and he was able to use knowledge of some level of letter-sound correspondences to sound out unfamiliar words and pseudowords. However, his writing skills did not begin to develop to a comparable degree until after he was 4 years old. The results are used to generate hypotheses about the nature and measurement of precocious reading and its relations with oral language and writing skills.

Twenty-five children, selected for verbal precocity at 20 months of age, participated in a longitudinal study investigating predictors of later language and literacy skills. Although children remained verbally precocious, there was a low incidence of precocious reading. Exposure to instruction in letter names and sounds was a significant predictor of children's knowledge of print conventions, invented spelling, and phonological awareness at age 4V2. Frequency of story reading in the home and child engagement in a story reading episode at age 24 months were significant predictors of children's language ability at age 2!h and Alh and knowledge of print conventions at age 4'/2. It is concluded that story reading with parents as well as literacy instruction contributes to the development of emergent literacy in verbally precocious children. What is the significance of verbal precocity? Are there implications for later related skills such as reading? Wells (1987) pointed out that literacy, like oral language, is acquired through a child's active sense making of data encountered in adult-child interaction. However, literacy, even more than oral language, seems to require specific kinds of input (e.g., books and print; McCormick & Mason, 1986; Snow, 1983). How dependent is literacy development on language skill compared with literacy exposure? The study reported here was undertaken to relate linguistically precocious children's early verbal skills, parentchild interaction patterns, and instructional experiences to their later language and literacy skills. We wondered, for example, whether early talkers would tend to become early readers, and if not, what experiences would determine who did. Little is known regarding the phenomenon of linguistic precocity. This article is based on one of the first studies to investigate longitudinally the development of children who talked early. Previous results of this project have demonstrated that exceptional language at 20 months is maintained at 24 months and 2'/2 years; however, linguistic precocity does not necessarily extend to nonverbal ability at these early ages (Robinson, Dale, & Landesman, 1990). In the present study, we had the opportunity to investigate the stability of linguistic precocity across a much wider age span. Thus, our first research question in

Results of a longitudinal study of 59 10-12 year olds who had been precocious readers when first tested at 5-6 years of age suggest that extraordinary early achievement in reading predicts above-average, but not necessarily extraordinary, ability in reading and related skill areas during the middle elementary school years. This study illustrates theoretical and methodological issues that must be addressed in other investigations of early development of giftedness

Results of a longitudinal study of 59 10-12 year olds who had been precocious readers when first tested at 5-6 years of age suggest that extraordinary early achievement in reading predicts above-average, but not necessarily extraordinary, ability in reading and related skill areas during the middle elementary school years. This study illustrates theoretical and methodological issues that must be addressed in other investigations of early development of giftedness

The results of studies of precocious reading ability are reviewed, and the implications of these results for parents, teachers, and educational policy makers are discussed. Precocious reading ability is a complex skill, and levels of specific subskills vary widely among individuals. Although precocious reading ability is moderately associated with general intelligence, some highly .intelligent children do not read early and some precocious readers are of average or subnormal intelligence. Although parents should not expect to be able to teach their infants to read, they may encourage the early development of reading through natural and mutually enjoyable activities.

ABSTRACT Observation has suggested that different subgroups of precocious readers might be distinguishtd by different patterns of strengths and weaknesses. In particular, it seems that one group of children might be distinguished by the strength of their top-down, conceptuallydriven1pLocesses,,And another by their strong bottoms-up, text driven processes.To determine if these impressions of precocious readers' strategies provide a valid description of more than a few-cases, 87 teacher-designated precocious readers'at the kindergarten level were studied. The children completed a reading comprehension test; tests of reading, verbal ability, and short term memqry; and a batters, of oral reading measures. In addition, their parents completed questionnaires describing the reading histories and reading habits of their children. Results indicated that precocious readers were especially adept at tasks that drew on processes above the individual word level. However, any generalizatfods about this group must be tempered by consideration of individual differences. within the group. (FL)

The structure of precocious reading ability.

Unexpected reading precocity in a normal preschooler: Implications for hyperlexia

Letter naming time, digit span, and precocious reading achievement

One child in one hundred learns to read at home around the age of four. These children are an interesting population, particularly in relation to the different components of their psycholinguistic development and home background. Twenty such children from Ottawa, Canada were administered Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests, CIRCUS (a general language develop ment test), tests related to metalinguistic processing and WISC. Some relevant home background data were also collected. Results show that precocious reading acquisition in these preschoolers cannot be attributed to either intelligence or general language develop ment. Interestingly, these children who read fluently like older children performed badly on metalinguistic processing tasks. The total pattern of the findings on these children suggest that the poor scores on these tests could not be dismissed in terms of task difficulty. An attempt is made to relate the above results to the current scientific scholarship on the possible psycholinguistic deficits associated with failure in reading acquisition, especially involving metalinguistic abilities.