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