imary source for developing their language skills. It is also important to teach the child appropriate social skills. Providing opportunities for the child to interact with children whose behavior is more socially appropriate can help to accomplish this. Parents, and educators should work together to develop programs for each child to reach his/her fullest potential. When working with language development in children with hyperlexia there are some general strategies to use: (American Hyperlexic Association) Take advantage of strengths ( e.g. being a visual learner) learn and use their interests use visual cues reduce demands on the auditory system develop routines, schedules, and predictable patterns develop language comprehension expand expressive language skills model and teach social interaction/language skills avoid overloading be flexibleSome intervention strategies during the initial stages could include: starting where child is at and expand from there (dont attempt to re-teach things already learned). Be concrete when speaking try not to over-talk ( to much auditory information can be extremely confusing for hyperlexic children). Give time for the child to process information by pausing between sentences. Use the same phrases or sentences until they are understood, and then make progressive changes. Start using visual organizers (e.g. lists, calendars, and rules). Use written labels to help the child make associations between certain objects (e.g. the same label for similar, but different, objects such as using a red marker for both the desk label and the chair label). Break sentences down to the word level, then expand them gradually as understanding increases. State the rules in positive terms (dont discourage the children with negatives, or focus on the punishments over the rewards). Try to allow for hands-on learning experiences. Add the verbal aspects in as those experiences become familiar (videotapes, as...
