Beyond the Letters: Everyday Strategies to Help Children with Hyperlexia
This book is intended for parents and educators who have a child or work with a child who has hyperlexia. The suggestions in this book are geared towards small children, but may be relevant for older children and preteens as well. It does not cover teenage or adult topics such as puberty, relationships, or driving.
Parents of children with autism, without hyperlexia, may also find the strategies and accommodations in this book helpful. However, the focus is primarily on hyperlexic children and their unique skills and challenges.
Sorted into four main categories, this book addresses common issues or challenges associated with raising a child with hyperlexia: (1) social skills, (2) speech, language, and reading, (3) practical life, and (4) other. The list of topics addressed in this book are ones that other parents of hyperlexic children helped me to compile.
Each topic in this book includes a short description of how these issues or challenges may present itself in a hyperlexic child. Then a list of strategies and accommodations are given to address that particular challenge or issue. These strategies are ones that we have personally tried or had success with or that other hyperlexia families have tried.
Highlights of this eBook:
- Practical strategies that can be implemented today to help your child build their language and social skills
- Tips and suggestions that have actually been successful with hyperlexic children
- Written by a mother of a child with hyperlexia, hypernumeracy, and autism
- Access to relevant resources such as apps and printables to address specific challenges
- Covers 30 different challenges and issues specific to hyperlexia as determined by real hyperlexia families (a HUGE thank you to my readers for submitting their ideas!), including:
1. Expanding play beyond letters
2. Awkward social skills
3. Losing at a game
4. Emotions and overreactions
5. Impulse control
6. Taking turns
7. Poor or awkward conversation skills
8. Pronoun reversals
9. Language comprehension
10. Expressive speech delays and echolalia
11. WH- questions
12. Literal thinking
13. Interest in other languages
14. Selective listening
15. Finding appropriate materials for their emotional level
16. Finding appropriate reading material
17. Leaving the house
18. Mealtime struggles
19. Getting dressed
20. Bath time
21. Personal hygiene
22. Personal safety
23. Sleep
24. Potty training
25. Travelling and road trips
26. Getting distracted by letters and numbers everywhere
27. Sensory issues
28. Obsession with iPads and technology
29. Entering school
30. Accommodations for the classroom