When in Doubt, Write it Out!

by Lynda Beedham

The assessment with the Augmentative Communication Clinic staff was not going well. At 6 years of age, Eric could not sit when requested, attend to the testing materials, make eye contact when spoken to or any of the 'prerequisites to learning' that the clinician was looking for. He could not speak, could not hold a crayon and wore two hearing aids. He did not play with toys. If handed a picture book he would throw it across the room. Our son was deemed too low functioning for even the most basic picture communication system.

During the parent interview, I had described what I considered to be Eric' s word recognition skills - reading was what I called it. He would place wooden blocks in a row: E R I C - A B C D E F G - S T O P. He snuggled in bed with a dictionary instead of a stuffed bear. It was a beginning, I thought, and I felt this showed that he could be taught to read. The examiner patted my hand and told me that I was being unrealistic. My goals should be more in line with Eric's potential, that is, eye contact and sitting appropriately.

Six weeks later our family was in a restaurant. Eric was handed a menu along with everyone else. There were no pictures, only typed words. He touched my arm, then the menu words ' cheeseburger' and 'milk'. He got what he 'ordered' and laughed. We were finally smart enough to understand him!

The balance of summer holidays were spent discovering how much Eric already knew. We began with two printed words on a page, milk cookie. Eric had to point to his choice to get the food item (always a great motivator). Once he understood this 'game', and felt our praise and excitement, he quickly moved on. By day two, we were up to ten words on a page with accurate choices. By the end of the week, I threw away all my prepared word cards and just jotted words down as I thought of them. None of this was teaching him how to read - he had already discovered the secret of decoding written words.

I would write 'television' and he would run over and touch it. He showed us his sense of humour too. I wrote 'tree', he ran outside to touch one, then touched his knee. They rhymed! When he would touch items around the cottage, I quickly learned that he wanted me to write down the words for him. He would touch all 'B' items: ball, book, bathtub, then move on to another letter. If we didn't understand what he wanted, we asked him to spell it out. He started to spell to us using anything at hand - including the writing on t-shirts! Eric even invented his own names for items when the language escaped him. A request for garlic bread became 'hot medicine bread'. We investigated technology to assist him, as word boards couldn't hold enough information. Eric taught himself to type using a small hand-held electronic spell checker.

How had he learned all of this? Looking back, I remembered all the 'PicSyms' stuck everywhere around his old classroom. Eric had been seemingly unaware, but now I know that he had learned to match the printed word to the object. How he could develop and use this information to further decode other words I will never understand. Confident of our discovery, I phoned the Principal of Eric's school for an appointment prior to September. To his credit, he didn't brush me off, but listened and arranged for the Speech Therapist, Classroom Teacher and Special Education Co-ordinator to attend a demonstration of what we now called our "Summer Miracle". To my great relief, Eric performed perfectly during an hour and a half. The Speech Path. asked what would happen if I wrote out an instruction. Could Eric follow it? I didn't know. I wrote down 'turn off the lights'. Eric stood up, walked over to the switch and flipped us into darkness. With tears in everyone's eyes, discussion turned to 'what are we going to do with him now'?

Eric was moved 3 months later to a new school. Unfortunately, the Board of Education had no experience teaching a child who already knew how to read, but could not speak, could not hold a pencil, wasn't interested in painting, listening to a story, building, socializing, dressing up, or any 'normal' primary classroom activities. The staff could not get the usual feedback and confirmation of comprehension. With a language disorder interfering with the traditional routes of learning, negative behaviours took over and became the focus of management strategies. His reading ability was pushed aside as an idiosyncratic, non-relevant skill.

We had a fantastic teacher in the Primary Division. She readily admitted not knowing what to do with Eric, but was completely open to suggestions, attended workshops and, best of all, valued Eric as a worthwhile person.

In June of this year I was handed some information about hyperlexia from another parent.

Our 'Summer Miracle' wasn't so miraculous after all! There are thousands of other children that teach themselves how to read. Now what?

I called previous contacts in agencies, located parents, ordered the book Reading Too Soon, scheduled an assessment with O.I.S.E. in Toronto, and called The Centre for Speech & Language Disorders in Elmhurst, Illinois for an information package about hyperlexia. Using the remedial techniques mentioned in the literature, Eric' s language output has exploded. The negative behaviours are for the most part extinguished. Eric, now 13, is in his fifth school. provided with information about hyperlexic teaching strategies, the staff value and use his reading ability appropriately. The school cancelled Behaviour Management staff - Eric is a delight to have in the class!

Eric uses a Macintosh computer at home for language learning, a Franklin Language Master is his 'voice', and an Apple IIE at school. I have a clipboard and paper at hand everywhere we go. We have started with a speech & language therapist who is experienced with hyperlexic children. We believe that by sharing strategies we can continue on this fascinating journey and all learn even more.

We look forward with great hope, finally, that Eric can become a communicative, social person. Eric showed us his key to learning through the written word. Thank God he is Hyperlexic.