Project description

Hyperlexic children are fascinated by words and letters. They learn to read extraordinarily early even without explicit teaching, but they do not always understand what they read. We recently discovered that hyperlexia, which used to be considered rare, might be relatively common among autistics. After noticing this profile in a lot of children at our autism evaluation clinic, we decided to start a research project on hyperlexia. We wondered whether a deep link between hyperlexia and autism existed, and possible neurocognitive explanations for this link. Our literature review has shown that autism and hyperlexia are strongly linked. 84% of the published cases of hyperlexia were children who were also on the autism spectrum. We also estimated that 6 to 21% of autistic children are hyperlexic. Most of them start reading before the age of 5, and before they speak. In other words, the steps on their developmental path does not follow the order expected for typical children. There is no indication that this prevents the later acquisition of speech and comprehension. We now want to determine the frequency of this intense interest for letters in our population of autistic compared to non-autistic children. We also want to take a closer look at a few autistic children with hyperlexia, to better understand what they can do, how they do it, and how we can help in their developing functional language. This research project could lead to a change of perspective on autism, by showing that certain specificities, though they may at times be trying for parents, can also constitute exceptional strengths that should be recognized and encouraged. We hope that the results from this study can be used to guide clinical practice and improve early intervention strategies.