judy
Hi. My 18 year old daughter has been diagnosed with hyperlexia. I think it's a quite confusing syndrome and have gotten alot of info from the American Hyperlexia Association (via internet) as well as other hyperlexia sites. But I must say that the actual "treatment" or ways to "help" a teenager aren't addressed very much - mainly articles, etc. relate to much younger children. In 8th grade my daughter's teacher said "something is not right", although we had been asking for years what was up because she has always had trouble in comprehension and analytical areas. She was delayed in speech (received speech therapy prior to kindergarten, up to 7th grade). She read at 2-1/2 and could read cursive at 4. Memory is fantastic - facts, facts, facts - all remembered. But it's the putting it all together into a cohensive picture that's hard for her. Anyway, we have had some help from the resource department at her high school and have had tutoring off and on. Geometry was definitely an area where she needed tutoring all year long, although math (algebra, etc.) has always been one of her strengths. We're told this is typical. Socially she's about 2 years behind and luckily we began kindergarten at 6 because she was so small physically and so behind in large motor skills. She's a senior now and has alot of friends who are juniors. She's driving - a very cautious (overly!) driver and we were worried whether or not she'd be able to keep up with the fast pace on the road but she's been driving for 2 years and is doing very well!! College plans are currently 2 years at a junior college (where they have a strong learning disability department)and then she wants to go on to a university. She is very determined that she's going to be a teacher, so we'll see. Academically, she does well in anything that requires alot of memorization - languages, math, sometimes science. English, History, etc. are very hard. The therapist who did testing on her said she should avoid essay questions and stick to true-false, multiple choice whenever possible because essay answers are very difficult for her. I'm sure you have lots of questions, as do we all. Good luck and I hope maybe I helped just a bit. judy