by Kevin Roy

After much thought, I decided to write my own personal story about what I have learned about hyperlexia and about myself.

Before starting school in New Brunswick in the Fall of 1969, I could read, print, read road signs while traveling with my family and spell.  After starting school, I could add and subtract easily.  When Grade 2 came, I learned to write, which came relatively easy, however, towards the end of  Grade 3, I learned multiplication and division.  Although I'm not sure about division, I do remember confusing multiplication with addition. I moved before the end of Grade 3, again after the end of Grade 6, before the end of Grade 8 and at the end of Grade 10.  I repeated Grade 9 once and Grade 11 twice.  Even though I never quit school and finished every year, I found school hard, especially paying attention, doing homework and studying for test and exams.  From Grade 7 on, I had more that one teacher as well.  A lot of bullying and teasing was experienced in my life, as well as being at a loss for how to respond back, constructively.  There were little or no strategies to make the most of my strengths.  Teachers, my parents and myself were at a loss as to how to help me, so I was pushed on to the next grade(s).

I enrolled in a 2 year auto body course at Vocational School in Bridgewater, N.S. from 1983-85, of which I barely passed but completed, although I did well at Math and English.  Why I did this, I don't know.

School life was challenging as well as was making friends.  My parents were both school teachers at one time and they were baffled as well.  I went for over 30 years undetected and it has only been about 5 ½  years since knowing about having hyperlexia, myself.

One day in early 1992, while at church, my sister, Kathy asked me what I was going to do about my "learning disability" and I told her that I didn't know what she was talking about.

This concludes a brief background of myself and there may be more to follow, so stay tuned!

I believe it may have all began when Reg Scholfield, who is now my brother-in-law, was dating my sister when we were living in Waterville back in 1985, when he noticed and suggested to Kathy that something wasn't quite right with me and that I should go for testing. His mom had noticed that, although I was quite smart, I would get mixed up easily.  She had noticed it when I would go over to visit.  I also went to see a psychologist on more that one occasion on 1979-80, while living in Westport, who was of little or no help. He, more or less, thought that I was lazy.  Medication to improve concentration didn't help either.  Speed reading helped some, but not much, when I was in Grade 11 at North Queens Rural High School in Caledonia in 1982 or 1983.

One day in the Fall of  1992, while working in the apple orchards, I got to thinking over all of what Kathy had said.  I then decided that I wasn't putting up with this anymore and went to see my former family doctor in Berwick and explained the situation.  Then I went to see a psychiatrist at the former Mental Health Centre in Berwick.  The doctor then referred me to an employment counsellor at the Human Resources Centre in Kentville.  I was referred, by the Human Resources Counsellor, to 2 different people, on separate occasions, for GATB testing to determine where my strengths and weaknesses lie and to find out what was going on.  Still no idea!  There was a lot of waiting in between times, which was hard.

Finally, after a long waiting period, I received a phone call from Human Resources in October 1993.  I was, then, referred to a learning disabilities specialist at the New Minas Learning Centre on October 20th of the same year.  I was retested, using the WRAT-R tests. I did well on the spelling, writing and mathematics tests, yet did poorly on the reading comprehension ones.  Then I read a couple of short story portions and the book was taken from me, as I was then asked what it meant in my own words, without looking. I could only recall "bits and pieces" of what it meant, instead of the  "whole picture".  I was told that I had what was know as hyperlexia. I is the opposite of dyslexia, even though there are similarities of each as well as of ADD/ADHD.  There are also autistic-like behaviours, too.  As we talked afterwards, I asked for paper and pen to write down what hyperlexia was all about, so I could keep on track and not forget.

After leaving the centre that evening, I leaped with my arms in the air and said, "Whew, I needed that!"  It felt like a ton of bricks was taken off of my shoulders, as a lot of pressure was removed.  I finally found out somewhat the mystery of my formal education. Later, I researched the Internet to find out and learn more about hyperlexia and its traits, of which I will share soon.  I enrolled in the Retail program at the Annapolis Valley Work Centre in Coldbrook in June 1994 and graduated in March 1995.  I am currently employed at a grocery store in Wolfville sin 1996 and enjoy the work.  During that same year, I went to see one o the teachers at the New Nimas Elementary School, who is familiar with hyperlexia also, as she wanted to see me one to one.  It was mostly an exchange of ideas and information.

This concludes the beginning of the hyperlexia journey and there is more to come, so stay tuned!

The personal hyperlexic traits may vary depending on the individual(s) affected.  Some are more severe than others  I am only covering the ones that I seem to notice within myself.  They are as follows:  math calculations, good writing skills, ability to "read" for words, significant difficulty with comprehension of reading and receiving instructions at times, knowing when and when not to speak, "selective" listening, going from one extreme to the other, thought patterns interruped particularly during silent reading, poor initiation of conversations at times, interrupting conversations at times to give extra observations left out earlier, reading and speaking too fast without understanding, then closing book, losing train of thought while speaking at times. There is also difficulty listening especially when there is more than 1 message coming at once, learning in a "black and white" manner, repeating myself a lot and an inability to recall such things as phone numbers without looking them up, etc. I also startle easily when there is a loud noise nearby. These traits are what I seemed to have noticed within myself, while others may have things such as being unable to speak very well or not at all and fussy with certain types of food, not to mention being very hyperactive.
 

I guess what having hyperlexia has tought me, so far anyway, is that there are a lot worse things in life that others have and that it isn't life threatening either.  There are hyperlexic individuals who are more severe than myself as well.  Hyperlexia, however, can be frustrating sometimes, especially when one can't get past certain situations in life. A learning disability last a life time and will not go away, but life still goes on.

While support groups may be helpful and are not wrong in themselves, there may be a time  when we may need to look beyond that, so that they do not end up becoming obsessions.  It might be a good idea to try and focus on our strengths rather that the weaknesses, while at the same time try to improve on the weaker ones without being overwhelmed by them.  This is quite often easier said than done, as some days are better than others.

The reason I say that a learning disability lasts a lifetime is because I asked the learning disabilities specialist, "How long have I had this?"  I was told that I had it all of my life. I then asked her, "How long will I have it?" She said, "The rest of your life!", which is what Kathy had said before I was tested. Even though I went for years untested and undetected, without early intervention like there is in more recent years, I can be thankful that I am  functional and employable.  As well I can be thankful that hyperlexia is nothing to be ashamed of and I don't have to think that I'm stupid!  So what if I have a slight learning disability, BIG DEAL! The reason I wanted to find out what was going on was because I got tired of the  "rat race" and not knowing what the cause was.  I have come to realize more an more that not every quirk and behavioural problem is totally hyperlexic either, even though it may be in part.  Some things in life may be hereditary, as we are what we learn, or as a result of our own misfortunes and mistakes, which we often cause ourselves.  I'm still learning about hyperlexia, but what I'd like to do now, is to focus better on instructions and listening.  Hyperlexics learn things in "black and white", yet have strong memories for what they see and hear.  They often will repeat back, in question for, to ensure that what they heard was correct.  This can be frustrating to the other people involved at the time.

Knowing how to answer the "wh" questions can be challenging at times, such as "When?; "Where?"; "Why?"; etc.

I felt that the teachers, in both elementary and high school could have one more to help me by having early intervention and not just shoving me on to the next grade(s), although I believe they were hampered by both a lack of insights and resources and they felt that since I could read, quite, spell and do basic math, that there was nothing wrong with me and thought I was lazy, even though I wasn't a problem at home, according to my parents.  As well, I used to withdraw to myself a lot, for the most part. I was also frustrated after working at an apple orchard for over a year, as to why others would catch on to things quickly and I didn't, even though they had been working there for a shorter period of time than myself.  As a result, I became somewhat resentful of it.  This is but a brief account of the hyperlexia story and I guess that it's time to come to the "conclusion".

I don't know if I've covered everything about hyperlexia, as there are still a lot of unknowns like there is with life itself, yet the one thing I heard just recently is to try to be patient. By the way, hyperlexic people have entered the engineering field, have gotten married, although relationships can be challenging and the possibilities are endless.  One final note and question would be: Do I feel guilty about writing this? The answer in NO!  It was Dad more so than Mom, who noticed that I "read" for words, not the meanings.  I guess that the next stage, after focusing on instructions and listening, would be the acceptance of this, but I haven't reached that stage yet.  This is my own writing and all of this isn't always easy to put into practice, even though I have made improvements.  These aren't expert opinions. This was written on January of 1999.