Is it hyperlexia? Toward a deeper understanding of precocious reading skills in two cases of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background: Hyperlexia is defined by a precocious and sponta-neously acquired ability to read at preschool age. Hyperlexia appears to be a wide yet not highly studied phenomenon involving different populations and possibly including children with different neuropsy-chological profiles and outcomes.

Methods: We describe two clinical cases of unrelated children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who both showed precocious and spontaneous reading ability. We report the neuropsy-chological assessment they underwent.

Results: Both children showed above average IQ, reading skills, and text comprehension, whereas one showed below average comprehen-sion only in oral text. We question whether these two phenotypes can be considered forms of hyperlexia, as defined by the most recent and consistent observations, or a subtype of ASD with hyperlexia.

Conclusion: We conclude that our patients should be considered hyperlexic ASD, with interesting potential implications for progno-sis and rehabilitation.

Keywords: Children; Hyperlexia; Key words: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Precocious reading ability.