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

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.