Children’s obsession with letters and numbers may be a sign of hyperlexia

Hyperlexia is when a little one begins to learn early and surprisingly past their anticipated skills, usually accompanied by an obsessive curiosity in letters and numbers that develops throughout infancy. Though their signs are sometimes mistaken for autism, about 84 p.c of kids with hyperlexia have autism.

Psychiatrist Samuray Özdemir, who made statements concerning the analysis of hyperlexia dysfunction, shared details about remedy strategies.

THERE ARE 3 DIFFERENT TYPES OF HYPERLEXIA

Psychiatrist Dr. Teacher Member Samuray Özdemir defined that there are 3 differing kinds of hyperlexia and their analysis is as follows:

Kind 1 hyperlexia: This sort happens when kids with out a neurodevelopmental dysfunction/incapacity study to learn early and nicely above their anticipated stage of improvement. Since kind 1 hyperlexia is just not thought of a dysfunction, a particular diagnostic method is just not thought of obligatory.

Kind 2 hyperlexia: This sort of hyperlexia is seen in kids with autism. They’re usually obsessed with numbers and letters, preferring books and magnetic letters over different varieties of toys. Additionally they usually bear in mind vital numbers resembling license plates and delivery dates. These kids usually have extra typical autism signs, resembling avoidance of eye contact and emotional intimacy, and hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli. The primary options seen in kind 2 hyperlexia are the kid’s capability to learn far more than anticipated for his age, obsessive preoccupation with numbers and letters, rote studying resembling repeating items of info, and numerous different behavioral issues.

Kind 3 Hyperlexia: It’s just like kind 2 hyperlexia, however its signs lower over time and ultimately disappear. Kids with kind 3 hyperlexia are likely to have a outstanding tendency to know what they learn, however their verbal language improvement may be retarded. The reminiscence capabilities are extraordinarily excessive. Not like kids with autism, kids with kind 3 hyperlexia are those that can simply talk with their setting, are extroverted and present emotional intimacy. Diagnosing kind 3 hyperlexia can be troublesome as a result of, along with beginning studying early, these kids usually show a quantity of autism-like options and behaviors. Chief amongst these are a rare capability to memorize, sensory sensitivity, intense resistance to alter, phobias and fears, lining up or stacking behaviors, and reversing pronouns by referring to themselves as “he” or “you” or “by title”. Nonetheless, kids with kind 3 hyperlexia are often those that set up emotional intimacy, are extroverted, and work together with shut members of the family. Their autism-like behaviors lower over time and they turn into in a position to operate in accordance with their age.

Stating that it’s not doable to say something clear concerning the prevalence of hyperlexia within the society, Dr. Özdemir defined as follows, in keeping with the statistics obtained from the analysis: “About 6 p.c to 14 p.c of kids with autism have hyperlexia. Not each little one with hyperlexia has autism. About 84 p.c of kids with hyperlexia have autism. About 1 in 54 kids has autism spectrum dysfunction.” mentioned.

METHOD OF TREATMENT OF HYPERLEXIA

Dr. Özdemir said that kids with kind 1 hyperlexia don’t require remedy for the remedy of hyperlexia, however kids with kind 2 and kind 3 hyperlexia can profit from the next varieties of remedy: “Speech and language remedy may help enhance the language and social abilities of kids with hyperlexia. On this technique, superior studying skills are used to assist kids develop and enhance their weak factors resembling social interplay and comprehension. Every little one has a personalised remedy plan that focuses on their distinctive wants, resembling social abilities, superior language abilities, understanding spoken language, writing and talking.”

Expressing that there are some methods that therapists use to work on these abilities, Özdemir mentioned. mentioned: “Visible strategies to assist understanding, visible applications and timelines, affiliation video games to show phrase associations, social tales, guessing about trigger and impact, methods for fogeys and academics.”

Saying that one other remedy technique is occupational remedy, Dr. Ozdemir, “This remedy method is individualized, however the therapist at all times works on the kid’s problem areas resembling sleep, diet, self-care, taking part in class actions, taking part in social actions, writing and responding appropriately to sensory stimuli. The academic placement course of constitutes the principle distinction in method methods for youngsters with kind 2 hyperlexia and kind 3 hyperlexia. Kids with kind 2 hyperlexia profit from particular schooling lessons. As a result of regular lessons should not appropriate for them as a result of they comprise too many stimuli, and subsequently they’ll study higher within the setting the place they obtain one-on-one schooling. Kids with kind 3 hyperlexia, then again, profit extra from being within the typical classroom setting. They’ve extra possibilities within the classroom setting to have acceptable social interplay with classmates of the identical age.” mentioned.