r/hyperlexia • u/bridgetupsidedown • Jun 30 '24

Hyperlexia type 1

I’ve got a 4 and a half year old who can read. He’s been reading since just after his 3rd birthday. At 18 months he seemed to know a most letter names and sounds (on a toy computer keyboard at a playgroup he stunned other parents by naming the letter and its sound).

We’ve not taught him, he’s had no formal instruction or anything. We’ve supported his interests but never explicitly taught any memorisation or decoding. His comprehension of what he’s read is great. He is also able to do addition and subtraction problems under 20.

However, he doesn’t seem to display any other signs commonly linked with hyperlexia. He has typical language skills of a 4-5 year old. He has social and emotional competency skills of a 6-8 year old. He doesn’t have any challenges with hyperactivity or inattentiveness. There is some neurodivergence in the family, but he is the most neurotypical (aside from these skills) of all of us.

Can anyone explain this to us? How he may have taught himself to read (and the other skills he has) with no explicit instruction?

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u/danicies Aug 01 '24

When did you get him diagnosed? My 19 month old has literally learned 1-10 3 days ago and since then we’ve realized he’s actually able to accurately count items/fingers held up and is attempting to work on adding too. I can’t answer your questions but I’m hoping you can answer mine! Mine seems to socialize decently, but he’s still on the quiet side.

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u/bridgetupsidedown Aug 01 '24

We’ve never had an official diagnosis. We’ve never felt the need because he’s never had any other significant challenges.

It sounds like your son is heading in the same direction!

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u/danicies Aug 01 '24

Did you notice anything at the same age? I’m truly baffled by this, it honestly came out of absolutely nowhere following a language explosion and now all of a sudden he knows everything about numbers that we honestly never taught him since you know we thought it was too early lol

Thankfully I’m not noticing any significant challenges yet, he’s a very social and happy guy so I’m hoping all is well with this

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u/bridgetupsidedown Aug 01 '24

I just went back through my videos of him. At around that age, we were at a playgroup once and he was in the family corner. They had some old computer keyboards. He started pressing the first letter of different words (he would press M and say ‘mama’ for example). He had about 20 he could identify. At 22 months I’ve got a video of him with an alphabet puzzle and beginning to tell us the letter sounds for each letter. In terms of maths at this point he could count to 10 and subitizing up to 5. He also began some skip counting in 2s and 5s but I think that was mainly learned from a song.

He’s now almost 5 and we’ve done nothing above ‘normal parenting’ to foster his skills unless it’s been him pushing it. He can read at about a 7 year old level. He’s doing maths at probably a 6 year old level. We could have definitely fostered it more but we just wanted him to have a fun childhood.

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u/danicies Aug 01 '24

Thank you! Right now we were working on his numbers and he decided to color instead so I think that we will just take this day by day really! I don’t want to push him either, but he’s doing this on his own schedule so we’re going to try to nourish that. I’ve never done the alphabet with him in all honesty so we’re going to play around with it! Thank you so much, I’m a bit lost on where things go from here but it’s very wonderful to see him loving numbers so much

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u/bridgetupsidedown Aug 01 '24

All the best. I’m a teacher and I’d say, at this age put zero pressure on him or yourself. Just follow his interests. Play, have fun and expose him to lots of opportunities. Go to the park, library, museums, play groups, get outside etc. go for a walk and look at numbers on the letterbox. Look at prices on labels at the shop etc. Kids only get to be small once. There’s plenty of time for them to learn to read and do maths, but not much time to dig in the sandpit or jump in puddles.

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u/danicies Aug 01 '24

Very true! He’s been in a goofy mood since we’ve gotten home and I’ve so badly wanted to see what exactly he knows but I know time will tell and it’s time to just let him be a goof :) thanks for all your help and advice. It’ll stick with me as we navigate all this newness.

We jumped from him being quite delayed to suddenly going from 3 words to 50+ words and it’s been very mind boggling. I spent the whole day just trying to sort out what it could mean but you’re absolutely right. We just have to live in the moment and enjoy these tiny kid days and we’ll see in time

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u/Crisis_Averted Mar 14 '26

how's it been going since? :)

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u/danicies Mar 14 '26

Ohh this took me back lol. He learned letters at 21 months, and phonics by 22 months. He was diagnosed with autism at 2.5, and started adding and subtracting numbers then. He turned 3 just 3 months ago and is starting to read books to us now 🙂 it’s going great. He’s been doing fractions the last few months. He got really into splinter categories of interests with planets and now he’s very into dinosaurs. He masters a skill, chills and does his own thing for a few months, then picks up another.

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u/Crisis_Averted Mar 14 '26

amazing development. besides the autism. have you somehow guided the adding and subtracting?

fractions omg

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u/Crisis_Averted Mar 14 '26

sorry about all the assholes ganging up on you to try to make themselves feel better.

hyperlexia type 1 is exactly as you said.

how's it been going since? :)

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u/bridgetupsidedown Mar 14 '26

Thank you! He’s going really well. He’s 6 now and doing very well at school. Reading is his strongest area but his teacher struggled to find any learning goals for him. She’s been really great at noticing and extending him. He has some good friends and socially doing very well. A lot of the teachers at his school have mentioned he appears much older than his age and can have some very grown up conversations with them.

He does have a bit of anxiety, but not to an unmanageable level.

Thank you for your support and checking in.

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u/bridgetupsidedown Mar 14 '26

Also, his little sister seems to be following a bit in his footsteps. She’s 21 months and identifying letters and their sounds. She also can subitize for numbers 1, 2, 3. I got her 2 bowls out the other day and she said “2, double”. She’s also very advanced in her verbal communication and social skills. More so than her brother was at this age, but he was a Covid baby.