A longitudinal study of a hyperlexic child: hyperlexia as a language disorder.

The longitudinal study of a hyperlexic girl, A.E., is described. Although her WISC-R IQ was 58, her reading was significantly advanced for age and level of intellectual functioning. She was socially withdrawn and displayed repetitive and self-stimulation behaviors. At birth she weighed 1000 g and was 32 weeks gestational age. She had severe respiratory distress, seizures and apnea in the perinatal period. She had a history of significantly delayed development, although the delays were more pronounced in language than in perceptual motor skills. She demonstrated difficulties with semantic and syntactic processing of language and could read words and sentences of which she had little or no comprehension. The existence of reading in spite of severely disordered language suggests that reading may occur by visual and/or phonological routes but that semantic and syntactical processing of words is not essential.