Shortly after my son's diagnosis, I turned to social media to find hyperlexia resources and connect with other parents of hyperlexic children. I also started the #thisishyperlexia Instagram campaign as a way to bring awareness to this rare diagnosis. Instagram quickly became my favorite social media platform for learning about hyperlexia because suddenly I found hundreds of photos that could have easily had my son superimposed onto them. I could relate to every single one of those photos from the photos of crazy long words spelled out with magnetic letters to the photos of lists of items written down in chalk to the photos that showed how much hyperlexic children love movie credits. Instagram instantly helped me find my tribe of moms who could relate to what our daily life is like even if it was just by us sharing similar photos.
Explaining and describing hyperlexia to others seems to fall on deaf ears most of the time since most people think I am just gloating or bragging about my son - which, okay, sometimes I am - but perhaps they just cannot realize how remarkable these children really are. Words can only say so much. Photos do a much better job at telling a story. These 30+ photos capture the hyperlexic spirit and truly show how fascinating the minds of kids of hyperlexia are.
And they will happily spell out those book titles for you, even if it's the title of a computer textbook that's thousands of pages long.
Since kids with hyperlexia are incredibly talented at decoding written words, it is no surprise that they love letters. They think they are perfect.
In fact, they like to remind us that...
Magnetic letters are probably their most prized possession. They will play with them nearly every single day of their childhood.
These kids are literal thinkers.
Like the time I drew a heart on a road with chalk and then my son wrote this:
They happily improvise when they run out of letters.
Chalk seems to be a perfect way for these kids to express themselves.
Kids with hyperlexia are particularly fond of movie credits as you can see.
They also enjoy typical potty talk like other kids their age. They would just rather spell it out for us.
Kids with hyperlexia have interests beyond letters though, including math:
And science:
And planets:
These children are bright and they should be celebrated for their incredible abilities and strengths. That doesn't mean that they don't have their challenges. Trust me, they do. But their minds are simply beautiful.
You can continue to celebrate these wonderful children by following the #thisishyperlexia hashtag on Instagram or tag your own photos if you have a child with hyperlexia.
