Preferred Label : Hyperlexia;
Type : Other, mainly phenotypes with suspected mendelian basis;
Alternative titles and symbols : Compulsive reading; Precocious reading;
Description : Silberberg and Silberberg (1967) defined the term 'hyperlexia' to describe children
who read at levels beyond those expected for their mental age in the face of disordered
oral communication. Turkeltaub et al. (2004) stated that there are 3 consistent features
of hyperlexia: the presence of a developmental disorder of communication, most often
an autistic spectrum disorder (209850); acquisition of reading skills prior to age
5 years without explicit instruction; and advanced word recognition ability relative
to mental age, with reading comprehension on par with verbal ability. Among a group
of 66 children with autism, Burd et al. (1985) identified 4 with hyperlexia. Burd
and Kerbeshian (1988) described a brother and sister who began reading at about age
3 before receiving instruction and spent much time thereafter reading from encyclopedias,
dictionaries, almanacs, and newspapers at ages 4 to 6. Both were thought to have 'pervasive
developmental disorder,' which includes autism and Tourette syndrome (137580). Using
functional MRI (fMRI) to study a 9-year-old boy with hyperlexia during covert reading,
Turkeltaub et al. (2004) found greater activity in the left inferior frontal and posterior
superior temporal cortical areas, and in the right inferior temporal cortical areas
compared to controls. The authors suggested that precocious reading simultaneously
draws on both left hemisphere phonologic and right hemisphere visual systems. The
boy's reading comprehension ability fell in the average range, despite his advanced
word decoding rate and accuracy and high IQ, further suggesting a diversion of attention
resources from semantic aspects of reading to phonologic and visual aspects. Turkeltaub
et al. (2004) noted that dyslexia (see 127700) had been associated with hypoactivation
of the left superior temporal cortex. *FIELD* RF 1. Burd, L.; Kerbeshian, J.: Familial
pervasive development disorder, Tourette disorder and hyperlexia. Neurosci. Biobehav.
Rev. 12: 233-234, 1988. 2. Burd, L.; Kerbeshian, J.; Fisher, W.: Inquiry into the
incidence of hyperlexia in a statewide population of children with pervasive developmental
disorder. Psychol. Rep. 57: 236-238, 1985. 3. Silberberg, N. E.; Silberberg, M. C.:
Hyperlexia: specific word recognition skills in young children. Except. Child 34:
41-42, 1967. 4. Turkeltaub, P. E.; Flowers, D. L.; Verbalis, A.; Miranda, M.; Gareau,
L.; Eden, G. F.: The neural basis of hyperlexic reading: an fMRI case study. Neuron
41: 11-25, 2004. *FIELD* CS Autosomal recessive; Isolated cases; Multifactorial;
Inheritance : Autosomal recessive; Isolated cases; Multifactorial;
Prefixed ID : 238350;
Origin ID : 238350;
UMLS CUI : C1855928;
Automatic exact mappings (from CISMeF team)
- Currated CISMeF NLP mapping
- HPO term(s)
- Semantic type(s)
- UMLS correspondences (same concept)
