He finally said it!!

Now, granted, I cheated. I'd had a situation last week where he read aloud (as he usually does) a request I wanted him to make verbally. Always trying to get him to use his words.. and it had worked surprisingly well. He'd actually strapped himself into a booster seat and was walking around the kitchen with this contraption strapped to his backside and trying to get me to open it up for him so he could strap himself back into it and do it all over again. So, after asking him verbally to say "open please" about 4 times I wrote it on a piece of paper. He said it. I praised him and told him that wasn't so hard to do and look.. I opened it. He then continued to verbally make the request as he played his game. So yes, when the thought crossed my mind I thought it might be a fun experiment. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote "I love you Mommy". He read it aloud once and then modified it. He said "I love you too Mommy". I actually cried. He's 4 years and 5 months.. and he finally said it. =) I want to believe he generated the sentiment internally and was sincere but even if he simply pulled it from his vast database I can't complain.

Subtitles

I recently attended a meeting sponsored by my school district, the point of which is to provide me with the tools, materials and expertise to have my child ready to enter Kindergarten. It would seem many children fall well below the "average" upon entry to Kindergarten and those who enter below tend to stay below their classmates until much later in their school career. So they're trying to get these kids to enter at an average level or above in order to give them an edge for their entire school run, not just Kindergarten. At this meeting the topic of subtitles came up and I commented about how great I thought they are and how they can really help someone struggling to learn a language. I got a couple of strange looks but I think I made my point. But you likely weren't there so I will reiterate. These kids ARE learning another language.. the language of verbal communication. My son at least is very capable of reading the subtitles that scroll across the bottom of his favorite movies and he definitely uses them to help him understand what's going on. My other 2 kids have to suffer through them but I secretly hope that perhaps just a smidgen of the information there will rub off and help them to become better readers. So.. if you can.. turn on those subtitles!

Movie Credits

Another example of my son's early reading abilities came in his reaction to the end credits of a movie. Now granted, they usually are accompanied by the music score from the film, which in itself might be enough to get him to come running, but he loves to watch the credits roll by! When he was younger, around 2, we would joke that they were his favorite part of the movie. I've heard other parents of hyperlexic kids say the same thing so here we have yet another example of the unique behaviors that go hand in hand with this disorder. I love to hear him blurt out things like "Production Designer" or "In Between Artist". Those certainly are not words he's been hearing anywhere.. what a kick!