​Reading Understanding and the Hyperlexic Kid

Some kids begin reading prior to they are able to hold a discussion. Reading can be broken down into two different procedures: (1) decoding the composed signs into words pronounced by the vocal device and (2) making out the meaning of the discourse through an interpretation of the content in view of the context.

Children with dyslexia have trouble with the the very first procedure. Children with hyperlexia have difficulty with the second. In the most severe cases, a hyperlexic kid can read any text, of whatever level of difficulty, with ideal fluency however no comprehension.

This hub will deal with the essence of hyperlexia, and will talk about methods to enhance reading understanding when the issue isn't reading-- it's comprehension.

The word hyperlexia is a bit of a misnomer, because it appears to indicate that the issue is that the youngster reads too well. If a youngster suffers from hyperlexia, you do not want his capability to read to be diminished.

In hyperlexia, a kid's fluency in reading stands in stark contrast to the failure to comprehend. We would have a regular developmental pattern if the capability to read and to comprehend were well balanced. If the kid understands better than he can read, then the kid is dyslexic. He is termed hyperlexic if a child checks out much better than he understands. It is not that any specific degree of fluency in reading is undesirable. It is the method fluency contrasts with understanding that makes it hyperlexia. Some teachers might reason that a person method to show up at a typical developmental pattern is to downplay reading ability. Nevertheless, it would not remain in the youngster's benefit to aim to solve this issue by lowering the capability to read. A better technique would be to improve comprehension.



Improving Understanding compared to discovering how to define words

Most moms and dads and educators concur that the pedagogical objective with a hyperlexic youngster should be to enhance comprehension. There are diverging viewpoints about how this ought to be done. One especially naïve take on the problem is that hyperlexic children need to memorize meanings of written words so that if they have trouble understanding what they read, they will constantly have a meaning of each word in mind.

For example, if we are studying a list of 4 letter English words of Anglo-Saxon origin, the child may be asked to memorize these 2 definitions:

deck-- 1) the floor of a ship or boat; 2) a raised patio connected to a home 3) a pack of playing cards.
luck-- fortune, mishap or possibility.

One issue with this technique is that it presumes that a kid who does not understand the definition of each word being specified will be able to understand it by methods of other words that are no less challenging.

Consider this: if a native speaker of English does not understand the principle of "luck", or what the word luck refers to, is he more likely to understand "chance", "accident" or "fortune"? It so happens that "opportunity" "mishap" and "fortune" are of latinate origin, and that "opportunity" is the French word for luck, but unless the hyperlexic youngster speaks French, or some other latinate language, how could this perhaps help?



Envision yourself aiming to find out an international language by memorizing for each new word a meaning of that word which is written entirely in the international language you are aiming to master. For functions of this mental workout, pick a language that utilizes an alphabet you are already acquainted with however that is not associated with any language you know. If you are a monolingual speaker of English, don't pick Farsi, because it is composed in a different alphabet, however is in truth Indo-European. Do not choose French, German or Spanish, due to the fact that you're going to be able to recognize some cognates. Instead, select something like Turkish or Tagalog.

Here is a definition in Turkish of the Turkish word bahtiser:
bahtiser (afi.) ka. - talihli, şanslı, iyi yazgılı. işleri başından beri iyi giden.


Having read the meaning, do you now understand exactly what bahtiser implies? Well, if you do not, then how is a hyperlexic child who does not know what it indicates to be fortunate expected to find out the meaning of luck from the meaning "fortune, possibility or accident"?