School for the T - Man

It's getting closer....Tristan will be going to school soon, and though I originally had some serious apprehensions, after his evaluation last week, I must say that I am feeling so much better about the entire process.

During the eval, there was the entire Developmental Team (about 4-5 people) to evaluate Tristan's skills (think playing with a purpose and being observed) and to ask me a bevvy of questions ranging from his social development to his psychological. During the interview, the subject of his early reading skills was raised. I talked about how he is able to see a word once, and then master that word and read it whenever he sees it again. They asked about specific words, and were very intrigued with the idea that he was able to recognize everything from "apple" to the more complex "computer". His reading vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few months, going from reading roughly 25-30 words to now well over 100.

At the end of the evaluation, we were told that he has a developmental disorder called Hyperlexia. Hyperlexics are often misdiagnosed as Autistics at a young age. When they hit the age 4-5 they grow more out of the "autistic type" behaviours and lead into the developmental disorders associated with Hyperlexia. Hyperlexia is present in about 10% of children misdiagnosed with ASD. They are also extremely intelligent, verging on savant. They have specialized capabilities, and excel at things that require early reading, order and picture associations. We have worked with Tristan on many things, and nothing is more exciting for him than to read.

This may be a new opening in his door of many things to come, but for now, we are going to just take it day by day...treating each new discovery as they come. Our little guy, the "maybe autistic, possibly hyperlexic, showing signs of an appraxic, definitely wonderful Tristan."