Hyperlexia Management

I started working with this first grade boy, who is diagnosed with pdd.nos but I am very positive that he has hyperlexia. All day he was obsessed with reading every poster, every paper, every book, anything with words on it. The teacher was reading a story to the children while they sat on the floor, he was busy reading the board. She handed out books for the children to read along, he read his out loud very quickly before everyone even got their books. The other children were amazed that he could even read, since most of them can only read a few words. This sounds very hyperlexic to me. When the teacher was giving instructions about how to hang up their school bags, he was busy reading the numbers off of his number chart that is taped to his desk. He misunderstood almost every oral direction that was given but he remembered everything that was written. From now on I am just going to keep a portable white board with me and write out all oral instructions for him. When he earned a break, his choices were : play with a ball/sensory toy, draw on the board or do stretches. He chose to draw on the board and instead of drawing, he wrote words, numbers and letters. While we were walking through the hall, he read every poster. I asked him who taught him to be such a great reader? He laughed and said NO ONE! I said it must have been your mom, he said NO WAY, then I said it must have been your kindergarten teacher, he laughed and said NO WAY. Then I said who did then? He said NO ONE! While laughing more. I think I believe him. I haven't found many techniques to use through my research on hyperlexia. Maybe the best way to manage hyperlexia is to feed into it with more written words until his reading and listening comprehension grow. There were a few things that made me angry with his teacher, she assigned groups then each child was assigned a color and she deliberately assigned him red because it was the shortest and easiest word to read (she also said red like your shirt), she did not listen to him read off every color listed on the paper before she walked over. Also, while reviewing her behavior system, she focused mainly on the punishments and very little on the rewards. He also has Oppositional Defiance Disorder and for some reason craves punishment, soon after her explanation and examples of incorrect behaviors, he hit me, yelled and became very non compliant. Now that is off my chest maybe I can sleep easy tonight.