4yo has crazy, natural spelling ability

[Anonymous]

Op: She was not really an early reader. She could not read in preschool. At the first preK parent-teacher conference last fall, I went in really worried about behavior, her ability to focus, and social skills. Her teacher said she thought she was very bright. I had taught her letter sounds for speech therapy just before school started, so I chalked the comment up to that. But her teacher also brought up dyslexia of all things! I will say this preK do a great job of teaching all letter sounds and some digraphs. But she still picked up reading fast. She can read anything now. She’s been into this pillow globe recently and somehow knows how to pronounce these obscure country names.

I’m not sure learning to read at four is hyperlexic?

“Guard” came up today after school (guardians of the galaxy). No problem. I’m just like how?! I barely remember there is a u in guard. I think if she’s seen the word she knows it. But otherwise memory is completely normal. She’s actually not very good at any of those memory games. But maybe we should try those games again. Her focus has improved so much in a year.

[Anonymous]

My natural spelling abilities are crazy too! Just inaccurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had hyperlexia. Its an early warning sign for autism.

I knew this was coming. DCUM moms are so quick to cry "autism" when they're jealous that somebody else's kid is better at something than theirs.

Washington is the epicenter of IVF in the states. There are in fact a very high concentration of autistic children in DC.

Correlation isn’t causation. Almost certain that parental age is playing a component here.

In any case, DC, Maryland, and Virginia aren’t even the top states for autism prevalence. The National Children’s Health Survey doesn’t even put these three states in the top 10. That prize goes to Florida, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dd had hyperlexia. Its an early warning sign for autism.

My niece also had hyperlexia, she could read anything. At three years old we would give her NYT articles to read for our amusement. It was so cute! But it didn’t help or harm her in any way.

Maybe she has an amazing memory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid could do this as well. He's not autistic fwiw.

It's important not to read too much into this as word recognition and spelling is just part of an overall literacy picture. Sometimes a kid who's great at pattern recognition like this can miss out on something like phonics because they have their normal shortcuts.

Keep reading to her, talk about plots, letter sounds, etc. Sounds like she's doing great, keep nurturing it.

It is an unusual trait. Most four year olds can’t spell words with silent letters like might or castle. They would usually spell casel or something. And I’m sure the op understands the whole literacy picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had hyperlexia. Its an early warning sign for autism.

I knew this was coming. DCUM moms are so quick to cry "autism" when they're jealous that somebody else's kid is better at something than theirs.

Are you not aware that autism and hyperlexia are indeed linked? That doesn’t mean all kids with hyperlexia have autism, but there is DEFINITELY a link.

[Anonymous]

I was like this and not autistic. I am a writer. I understand words, grammar and punctuation and always did. I also was good at spelling words in the foreign languages I studied. I also have a good memory for details. I tested high in spelling and grammar as a kid but not as well in reading comprehension, but I got better at that. I was not good at math and it took me a long time to understand it. I think some people just have this ability to understand words. I would say that I love words. I have a child who could never understand spelling rules and one who did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had hyperlexia. Its an early warning sign for autism.

I knew this was coming. DCUM moms are so quick to cry "autism" when they're jealous that somebody else's kid is better at something than theirs.

Omg there is nothing wrong with having autism. The only beef I have with the above response is that they used "warning sign" as if it was a sign of cancer. Just saying "early sign" would have been sufficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had hyperlexia. Its an early warning sign for autism.

+1 this was my level 1 ASD DS, phenomenal memory and love of patterns. Was recommended for magnet programs beginning in late ES, now at a WASP and doing very well. I don't know that the spelling facility translated into any particular giftedness with language, more of a STEM kid in the end. But that was where his particular interests lay and that's essential for ASD kids (if your kid is in fact ASD).

Op: That is very interesting. She also likes numbers. DD was speech delayed (articulation) and has/d intermittent hearing loss. ASD was a concern last year, but this year everything is looking to be an effect of the speech/hearing. That being said I’m not ruling anything out. She’s doing really well in the more academic prek. She is social and makes eye contact now. Speech has really come along and helped with connecting to peers. Her teachers this year have no concerns.

Also Re: phonics. She actually loves phonics. That might have actually been the first clue. She learned those rules fast. I think she likes codes. I’ve noticed she is always trying make rules to explain the way the world works.

There is a strong correlation with hyperlexia and autism and that's fine! It sounds like she has other behaviors that were flagged as possible signs too. It's called a spectrum for a reason and i don't think it's always black and white of "you have autism" and "you don't have autism". You can have some beahviors and signs of it without having others and therefore not meeting the exact diagnostic criteria. Either way, enjoy this skill and hopefully she becomes an early and avid reader like my similar son did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think dd sees a word once and memorizes it. We’ve accidentally discovered this on a road trip. We started with easy words. Then we were like “but can you spell castle?” Yes. Water, said, eight, knee, climb, menu, Mrs., people, beautiful, because… we have a really difficult time stumping her. I’m wondering if it’s because we use closed captioning.

Is this ridiculously advanced?

She can write the words or rattle off the letters, but she does the letter sounds which can be confusing. I’ve heard of early reading but not early spelling. It’s kind of a worthless skill in this day and age! Our little Prek-5th grade school doesn’t even do a spelling bee. So she’s just going to be able to ace spelling tests in kindergarten probably.

This is cool! Have her practice (verbally) in the spelling be format for a little bit each day, and see if you can get her school or participate in Scripps once she's in K or 1st

[Anonymous]

https://murrayspellingbee.com/pdf/WordsOfChampions.pdf

[Anonymous]

If she likes numbers, have her watch some numberblocks and play some number games too

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_bRavc-qerkEyGo-gkM9uOrg-BoNeRDU&si=KsGrZFrxxCu0xDnd

https://kitchentablemath.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Marshmallow-Math-Early-Young-Children/dp/1553953959

https://beastacademy.com/playground

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had hyperlexia. Its an early warning sign for autism.

I knew this was coming. DCUM moms are so quick to cry "autism" when they're jealous that somebody else's kid is better at something than theirs.

It’s an odd thing and parents want to know more about it. Autism runs in my family and they will find the genetic mutation within 10 years. My niece I had mention read adult reading materials without faltering or slipping over difficult words at three years old. She was an average student except loved to read and was a beautiful artist who was planning art school. She died from asthma before she could go. It makes me so sad every day. Who cares that she read adult reading materials at three years. It was cute because she was very petite. But this whole deal about a kid is gifted because she can spell or do algebra or whatever. The other kids learned to read and it was longer a parlor trick. She excelled in her art and was happy.

[Anonymous]

Op here. I appreciate all the food for thought. I accept that her reading as well as she does in preK is advanced now but doesn’t necessarily predict later academic ability. She’s our third, so I’ve seen it play out. Same for the spelling. I’ve just not seen anything like this.

While I didn’t think she could possibly meet the criteria for hyperlexia on reading alone, after reading up on hyperlexia, I realize now she 100% does, considering the spelling/writing. She likes reading, and when forced she will read a magic treehouse in one sitting, enjoying it. Someone asked about comprehension. It’s fine for these books. She reads with great expression too. But she loves spelling. She loves finding weird words out in the world.

I also think this is somehow connected to her not being able to hear well. Her speech was so, so bad up until the point she learned how to read. She could never remember any song lyrics. Not even “twinkle twinkle” after hearing it 5,000 times. Then I started printing them off for her. She memorized every song lyric in the K-pop demon hunters film in one day. Closed captioning has also made a huge difference.

Maybe her poor hearing has heightened her visual memory?

She loves school right now and is very happy. A year ago we could not say that, and I was really concerned. So that being said, I don’t think I should be too concerned about autism. I’ve asked her new teachers point blank. I trust they will let me know.