Visual methods of organizing materials or note taking, such as the use of Mind Maps or Word Webs, which allow the child to organize materials spatially instead of linearly, and the use of Story Maps for teaching reading comprehension, are often highly effective for the older hyperlexic child. Social skills may at times be an area of difficulty for older hyperlexic children. The intensive language demands of social situations, along with difficulty understanding more verbal forms of humor, and an often more concrete understanding of language, sometimes lead to difficulties for these children. Attention should be focused within the language therapy setting toward assisting these children with social skills goals, as their difficulties in this area are due to the language and learning difference of hyperlexia. Small groups of children under the direction of a speech and language pathologist are the ideal setting for assisting hyperlexic children with social skills.
Hyperlexic children are intelligent, often highly-gifted individuals.
They have an intense curiosity and interest in learning. Older hyperlexic children may often be highly verbal and obviously academically gifted. These gifts at times may be so obvious that little attention is paid to the language difficulties of hyperlexia, or to the very nature of the hyperlexic learning style. Only through an understanding of these language difficulties, and the visual and gestalt processing style of these children, can we help them to maximize their potential. This Web Site was created by Charlotte Miller .