I was amazed when my daughter taught HERSELF to read aged two – until doctors explained the rare reason why
- Tanya Paxton’s was shocked when daughter Sienna started reading street signs
- The little girl quickly started reading, which is due to her hyperlexia
- Doctors explained that this condition is associated with Sienna’s autism
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When Tanya Paxton’s baby girl started speaking age two, the mum was ecstatic.
Sienna had been born two and half months premature and had been hitting her milestones – like rolling over and sitting up – slower than she was supposed to.
‘Her first word was a fairly standard ‘hiya’, but from there she quickly moved into full sentences, often repeating phrases from TV’, Tanya tells Metro.co.uk.
”Sky, believe in better!’ she parroted over and over again after seeing the advert on telly. By two-and-a-half, she was reading off signposts and notices when we were out and about.’
British mother Tanya Paxton with her daughter Sienna, who taughter herself to read at the age of two due to hyperlexia
The first time Sienna started to read – a sign saying ‘exit’ – Tanya thought it was a one-off fluke.
‘Then she did it again. Looking up at me with her big brown eyes, my two-year-old gestured to a sign above an elevator and read aloud, ‘Lift”.
The mum said that after that, people used to stop her and comment on how far ahead Sienna was. They wanted to know what Tanya had been doing to teach her daughter how to read so early.
Tanya has to be careful what her daughter, now nine, picks up after catching her reading Bella Mackie’s How To Kill Your Family
Sienna had been born two and half months premature and was initially hitting her milestones – like rolling over and sitting up – slower than she was supposed to
‘But at home, she was looking at the same picture books that all toddlers have, and running through her ABCs,’ she recalled.
‘She certainly wasn’t learning adult words like “exit”, “lift”, “toilets” and “fire escape”.’
Sienna’s love for language didn’t stop there. Within six months, her attention had turned to books.
‘I was reading a story her granddad had bought for her one evening at bedtime when, suddenly, she just took over. She was pretty much word-perfect; I was so gobsmacked I got my phone out and started filming her.’
At nursery, teachers had flagged some difficulties Sienna had been having when it came to socialising with other children, and she was sent to an educational psychologist aged four.
THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF AUTISM
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with autism have trouble with social, emotional and communication skills that usually develop before the age of three and last throughout a person’s life.
Specific signs of autism include:
- Reactions to smell, taste, look, feel or sound are unusual
- Difficulty adapting to changes in routine
- Unable to repeat or echo what is said to them
- Difficulty expressing desires using words or motions
- Unable to discuss their own feelings or other people’s
- Difficulty with acts of affection like hugging
- Prefer to be alone and avoid eye contact
- Difficulty relating to other people
- Unable to point at objects or look at objects when others point to them
He diagnosed Sienna with autism and explained her amazing abilities as hyperlexia, a self-taught ability to read in children under five, often associated with autism.
About two in every 10,000 children with ‘autism spectrum disorders’ have hyperlexia.
‘Now nine-years-old, Sienna is a complete bookworm and can get through a young adult novel in a day.
‘I have to be so careful because she’ll pick up absolutely anything and read it. I recently caught her reading one of my books called How to Kill Your Family, with a cheeky grin on her face!’
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