Hyperlexia and Reading Comprehension

Kristen Coughlan EDUC 565 April 2014

What is Hyperlexia?

! There is no precise definition of hyperlexia. ! It is not in the DSM

(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

except as an example of a possible associated feature of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) (Kupperman, p. 25). ! There are varying definitions and opinions about hyperlexia.

What is Hyperlexia?

continued

! Murdick, Gartin, and Rao (2004) state that hyperlexia was first mentioned in 1967 when Silberberg and Silberberg used it to identify a developmental disability characterized by superior word recognition and decoding skills accompanied by delayed development of cognitive language abilities and poor understanding and comprehension of written word (p. 56).

What is Hyperlexia?

continued

! According to Murdick et al. (2004), the American Hyperlexia association requires three characteristics in order for an individual to be identified as having hyperlexia: 1.! Precocious reading ability 2.! Significant difficulties in understanding and using spoken language 3.! Problems with social skills

What is Hyperlexia?

continued

! According to Kupperman, hyperlexia often co-exists within the context of another developmental disorder ! autism spectrum disorder ! language disorder ! cognitive impairment ! nonverbal learning disability (p. 49). ! These disorders take precedence as the primary disorder.

What is Hyperlexia?

continued

! A publication by the Canadian Hyperlexia Association (1998) states: The identification of hyperlexia is a practical label. If the parents, therapists and teachers understand how the child learns, they can develop strategies to help the child succeed (p. 3) ! By identifying a child as having hyperlexia, we can accommodate for the childs weaknesses and build off of their strengths.

Precocious Reading Ability

! According to the Canadian Hyperlexic Association, Children with hyperlexia usually exhibit a self-taught ability to read words which appears before age 5, and/or an intense fascination with letters, numbers, logos, maps or visual patterns (1). ! These children can read and spell much higher than their age-level peers. Often, they begin reading spontaneously between ages 18 and 24 months of age (Murdick et al., 2004, p. 57).

Impaired Comprehension

! Despite overly mature reading abilities, children with hyperlexia have great difficulties with comprehension. They struggle with comprehending both written language and oral language. ! Murdick, et al. (2004) state that despite their ability to read, children with hyperlexia learn isolated pieces of information by rote and have difficulty organizing or using the information in context (p. 57).

Impaired Comprehension

continued

! According to Kupperman, the reading comprehension disabilities of children with hyperlexia mirrors difficulties in language comprehension (51). ! She continues, stating that their early reading comprehension for concrete material may be adequate, but difficulties arise from higher-level interpretation of abstract and inferential material (51).

Impaired Comprehension

continued

! Often, hyperlexia is considered on the autism spectrum. Therefore, many of the difficulties that hyperlexic children face with reading comprehension tie in with the general reading comprehension problems of children with autism.

Impaired Comprehension

continued

! In a discussion of students on the autism spectrum, Gately (2008) explains that to obtain reading comprehension, students must understand the authors vocabulary, style of writing, and story structure as well as characters social experiences and how these contribute to the development of motivations, goals, and actions within a story setting (p. 40).

Impaired Comprehension

continued

! In a Reading Rockets webcast, Nanci Bell comments that "these individuals tend to have difficulty processing wholes... these students have difficulty creating... big picture stuff. And so because they're processing language and just getting parts, a few facts, they can maybe remember some dates, they have difficulty with the main idea, with inferential thinking, in part because they don't have that second code working for them all the time.

Social Skills

! Children with hyperlexia often exhibit similar social challenges to children on the autism spectrum.

! Murdick et al. (2004) list social and behavior problems such as noncompliant behavior, self-stimulatory behavior, need for sameness, difficulty with transitions, anxiety, tantrums, and difficulty interacting and socializing with peers. ! These problems may impact their ability to comprehend language.

Why it is important

! Nation and Norbury argue that comprehension is a crucial academic skill for everyone, including children with autism, since it is necessary for independent living and pleasure. ! They continue, stating that the ultimate goal of reading is to understand what has been written, and although the ability to decode individual words is an important first step, it is no guarantee that adequate comprehension will follow (as stated in Armstrong & Hughes, 2012, p. 88).

Reading Comprehension Strategies

! Students with hyperlexia have areas of great strength that can be utilized to help build their weak areas. ! Because students with hyperlexia have strong reading skills, teachers should utilize written language whenever possible to assist students with hyperlexia.

Strategies

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! The Canadian Hyperlexia Association (1998) states that hyperlexic children present a strong visual memory, especially for the written word (p. 8). ! They continue, stating that the rule of thumb for many parents of children with hyperlexia is: WHEN IN DOUBT, WRITE IT OUT! (If it isnt written, it may not exist) (p. 10).

Strategies

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! Gately (2008) states that priming background knowledge can make a text easier to understand. The more readers know about a topic, the easier it is to connect the text with background knowledge (p.41). ! She continues, stating that picture walks are a way to help children develop positive expectations about what might happen in a story. Prior to reading the story, review the pages of the book with the students while they think about the story and facilitate students thinking by directing toward an accurate preview of the story (p. 41).

Strategies

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! Gately (2008) suggests using visual maps prior to, during, and following reading to help understand key details in a text. Teachers can provide a visual map that gives information about characters, setting, and the problem faced by the characters, which can be enhanced with details about plot, new characters, and new settings while reading (p. 42).

Strategies

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(Gately, 2008, p. 42)!

Strategies

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! Gately (2008) also suggests teaching students a basic understanding of narrative text structure with a simple who-did-what sequence chart. These elements can be written on sentence strips and organized by students (p. 43).

Strategies

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! The who-did-what sequence chart can be modified to be more advanced as students understanding grows.

(Gately, 2008, p. 43)!

Strategies

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! Kupperman suggests a similar method to explore plot by writing simple lists of the sequence of events of a story.

(p. 74).

Strategies

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! Kupperman also recommends using sentence strips to sequence story events (p. 105). ! Teachers can write out the main events in a story and students can organize them in a pocket chart in the correct chronological order.

Strategies

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! Similarly, a Speech Buddies blog post suggests that students with hyperlexia will benefit from visual mapping exercises to help them recall the important information in the story and organize it appropriately (F., 2013).

Strategies

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! Visual Map (F., 2013).

Strategies

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Strategies

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! Gately (2008) recommends using think-alouds to help students learn four basic strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing... As a passage is read aloud, stop often to share thoughts... The shared thoughts should be explicit... [to] help students gradually assume responsibility for using the four stategies (p. 42). ! Gately also suggests teaching students to highlight or use colored post-it notes to note these four strategies as they are reading (p. 42).

Strategies

continued

! Students can also use a color-coding system to mark characters feelings and emotions in stories. ! Gately (2008) states that this can help students (a) see the intensity of feeling in a concrete manner, (b) identify characters feelings, (c) show the difference between protagonists and antagonists, (d) show how characters feelings may change with different events, (e) and show how feelings often effect characters choices (p. 43).

Strategies

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! You can use cartoon bubbles to help students understand how characters thoughts may differ from their actions or words (Gately, 2008, p. 44).

Strategies

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! Patterned language can be used to teach students specific language concepts. ! Examples: ! If """"""", then """""""#$! ! Why? Because """""""#$! (Canadian Hyperlexia Association, 1998, p. 9)

Strategies

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! Similarly, Kupperman recommends using cloze sentence formats when asking comprehension questions (p. 106). ! Teachers can write cloze sentences on sentence strips and write possible answers on additional strips. Students can match the sentence strips to demonstrate comprehension.

Strategies

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! According to Kupperman, teachers should capitalize on hyperlexic students strength in rote learning by explicitly teaching how to answer wh- questions; how to approach multiple-choice, true-false, and open-ended questions; sentence stems; and the syntax of literature. Teachers should write examples of appropriate answers to demonstrate these skills to students (p. 91).

Strategies

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! Repeated reading of a text can aid in reading comprehension. ! According to Kupperman, teachers should have the student read the story aloud several times to increase reading fluency. Increasing reading fluency has been shown by research to increase comprehension (104).

Strategies

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! These comprehension strategies will help not only children with hyperlexia, but all children in a classroom develop deeper comprehension skills!

References
Armstrong, T. K., & Hughes, M.T. (2012). Exploring Computer and Storybook Interventions for Children with High Functioning Autism. International Journal of Special Education, 27 (3), 88-99. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezai.ez.cwmars.org:3200/ehost/detail? sid=0601343b-8bfa-42cf-8693-40e2ccfa8409%40sessionmgr4005&vid=1&hid=4202&bdata=JkF1dGhUe XBlPWlwLHVpZCZzY29wZT1zaXRl Beck, A., Bell, N, &Walpole, S. Reading Rockets: Make Reading Count [Webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/webcasts/2002 Canadian Hyperlexia Association. (1998). Hyperlexia. Retrieved from http://judyanddavid.com/cha/ whatishyperlexia.pdf F. H. (2013). Help for Hyperlexia: Great Reading Tips for Children with Autism. Retrieved from https://www.speechbuddy.com/blog/speech-therapy-techniques/help-for-hyperlexia-great-readingtips-for-children-with-autism/ Gately, S. E. (2008). Facilitating reading comprehension for students on the autism spectrum. Teaching

Exceptional Children, 40 (3), 40-45. Retrieved from

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezai.ez.cwmars.org:3200/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a8e7d4d7ecbc-45ca-b141-a81eef06d11d%40sessionmgr110&vid=5&hid=116 Kupperman, P. Children with Hyperlexia: Identification and Intervention [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://www.linguisystems.com/pdf/ceu/32/Hyperlexia.pdf Murdick, N. L., Gartin, B. C., & Rao, S. M. (2004). Teaching children with Hyperlexia. Teaching Exceptional

Children, 36 (4), 56-59. Retrieved from

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezai.ez.cwmars.org:3200/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a8e7d4d7ecbc-45ca-b141-a81eef06d11d%40sessionmgr110&vid=8&hid=116