Without having heard the term hyperlexia , Robyn recognized the strange way Taylor was learning to talk and knew well the blank stares that came from not understanding the language around him. It might as well have been French to Taylor. Imagine you're in another country with your phrase book tucked securely in your pocket.
Linguists believe that it is easier for a child to learn a second language than it is for an adult.
At around age 12, the child crosses a threshold and it becomes more difficult to acquire a second language. However, young hyperlexic children have trouble learning English, because the task is as hard fro them as learning a second language after the age of 12 is for other people. In the foreign land of hyperlexia, the children do not have the advantage of a phrase book to look at. They don't have a first language to fall back on. They only have their eyes and ears and a blank slate to record what they observe.