1/8/09

Lily has been verbalizing so much the past couple of days! She really is having a quite a speech spurt :). She has been trying to say words after me very routinely now and has been spontaneously saying sounds and words without any prompting. One of her speech therapists thinks she may have hyperlexia, which is pretty much the opposite of dyslexia. Here is some info I pulled up about it:

What Is Hyperlexia?
Hyperlexia is a syndrome observed in children who have the following characteristics:
A precocious ability to read words, far above what would be expected at their chronological age or an intense fascination with letters or numbers.

Significant difficulty in understanding verbal language
Abnormal social skills, difficulty in socializing and interacting appropriately with people

In addition, some children who are hyperlexic may exhibit the following characteristics:
Learn expressive language in a peculiar way, echo ro memorize the sentence structure without understanding the meaning (echolalia), reverse pronouns
Rarely initiates conversations
An intense need to keep routines, difficulty with transitions, ritualistic behavior
Auditory, olfactory and / or tactile sensitivity
Self-stimulatory behavior
specific, unusual fears
Normal development until 18-24 months, then regression
strong auditory and visual memory
Difficulty answering "Wh--" questions, such as "what," "where," "who," and "why"
Think in concrete and literal terms, difficulty with abstract concepts
Listen selectively, appear to be deaf

Of course not all the characteristics fit, but quite a few do and I do think she can read some words. My nephew, who is on the spectrum, taught himself to read when he was 2.
It's always a plus if your child can read, so I'm hoping she does have some concept of it because it can only help her speech development.
Today in therapy she actually said "pig" when she saw the pig. That was a first for her. On the way there I tried to pass her her harmonica and asked if she wanted to play some music (it's a good warm up for her) and she said NO! (first time for that too) she will usually say "oohh" and only after I prompt her for it. This morning I showed her a wind chime and she perched her lips into an "o" and said "wow".

I talked to her therapist about all of Lily's activities lately, including her clinginess for certain groups of objects and apparently that is a very good thing. For almost a week it was her blankets that she had to have everywhere she went, then it was her cars, then her mickey characters, etc.
Today for the first time in a long time she didn't have the need for that though.

Yesterday my sister babysat Lily and she didn't care at all that I was leaving. Anthony got home before I did though and she had a complete meltdown that it was him instead of me. Luckily I came home shortly after. I'm going to try to leave again tonight and see how it goes.