Hyperlexia?

There a messageboard that I go to that’s all about autism.  We talk about everything there.  Some woman mentioned her son’s fascination with letters and spelling so I told her my son was like that also. To that she replies:

” I know- you don’t see it very often- it is called hyperlexia- look it up online to read more about it- it is seen in some people without autism, but not many- it is a useful tool though- now that Lucas can read- he can write out things too and we are about to start giving him a pen and paper when he is frustrated to see what he wants to see if he can communicate that way.”

So I look it up and on http://www.hyperlexia.org/aha_what_is.html I find this :

Hyperlexia is a syndrome observed in children who have the following characteristics:

• A precocious ability to read words, far above what would be expected at their chronological age or an intense fascination with letters or numbers.
• Significant difficulty in understanding verbal language
• Abnormal social skills, difficulty in socializing and interacting appropriately with people

In addition, some children who are hyperlexic may exhibit the following characteristics:

• Learn expressive language in a peculiar way, echo ro memorize the sentence structure without understanding the meaning (echolalia), reverse pronouns
• Rarely initiates conversations
• An intense need to keep routines, difficulty with transitions, ritualistic behavior
• Auditory, olfactory and / or tactile sensitivity
• Self-stimulatory behavior
• specific, unusual fears
• Normal development until 18-24 months, then regression
• strong auditory and visual memory
• Difficulty answering “Wh–” questions, such as “what,” “where,” “who,” and “why”
• Think in concrete and literal terms, difficulty with abstract concepts
• Listen selectively, appear to be deaf

Um….is that Silas or is that Silas?  But he didn’t regress after 18 months I don’t think.  WEIRD HEY??  This describes Silas but so does autism.  So we’ll see.  Most likely both it seems.

Silas is getting his diagnosis THIS MONTH.  Someone special, I dunno if they want to be named, is paying for it to happen early.  Otherwise the wait is another 8 months of precious precious time.  Time that we can never ever get back.  His brain is open right now for certain things and it’s not going to be open for long.  I’m excited to get this moving!  I’m going to try to think of a way, like Bags For Zaza to raise more money towards his recovery, the government pays and so does our health coverage, but not for it all…not nearly.

Anyway, there we go, hope you enjoy your Monday.  As usual I just feel stinking tired, like I always do on a Monday.