Hyperlexia

Sitting here waiting on Ridlee, while she's in Speech therapy and pondering the mysteries of the brain. All my kiddos have had their own unique quirkiness. I too was a pretty quirky child. Ridlee though, from those early days as a super small baby and a sensitivity to any caffeine I drank, has had some interesting quirks. Even in the field I am in, there is constantly a learning curve. It wasn't until recently that I found a term for what she has. And I still don't know what's really under the iceberg of what we see with her. It was around 6 months or so ago that we even knew she knew all her letters, identifying them just out of nowhere. We had not been actively working with her on them. She learned them on her own. We knew she had an affinity for numbers and colors, but the letters shocked us. That's just an example of how we learn what she might know. Her pragmatic speech is delayed, even though she said her first word around the typical age most do. She's just didn't talk as much for awhile. Everything else has come easy and early for her. The past couple of months I've seen a side of her that is both fascinating, yet confusing. She is becoming more fascinated with phonics, to the point that I was even curious if she could be reading before she actually carries on conversations. Apparently you can. I'm learning as I go with this one. But the term is hyperlexia. And there are three types. She is a classic third type. These types are not your neuro-typical child just reading early (that's hyperlexia 1) but these types often have Speech delays and some other odd traits that overlap the autism spectrum, but usually dissipate overtime. Some of those have already dissipated. This brings out so many questions on the brain for me. We truly don't know why one part of the brain can be advanced while another is delayed. When thinking of those injured in accidents this comes to me a lot. Parts recover quickly while others take longer. This one organ holds so many mysteries. I probably think too much on it. I will say this though, I don't want to "fix" Ridlee. Whatever she has is amazing and I love it. She is the sweetest, most affectionate, most stubborn, and active little girl. Her speech will catch up. This is definitely an adventure for sure. And I'm learning things from her everyday. Most of which is helping me in my own profession. #adventuresofRidleeEvangeline #hyperlexia