"I spent a lot of years bored, and a lot of years excessively stressed", never heard anything more relatable in my life 😂 describes my entire education.
I'd definitely say I'm a gestalt thinker, and this is definitely considered an autistic trait. Which is weird in a sense, since the general stereotype is that autistic people fail to see the big picture, and are focused on details. I don't think these are both true, I think being detail oriented does not mean you fail to see the big picture. In other words, I think it's a mistake to say that autistic people don't see the big picture just because we don't see the same picture that neurotypicals do.
I wonder if it’s possible that we do see the big picture, but it’s just that we see ALL of the big picture, and our priorities on what to focus on tends to be more of the sensory experiences which are usually the things near to us🤔
In elementary school and middle school, they made us take yearly standardized tests to see what our reading level was. I was in 5th grade when I scored at "post-high school level" and no one ever questioned if I was autistic because I was "so smart." I was only in 3rd grade when my teacher decided that instead of having me take our class spelling tests that I always scored perfectly on, she would have me proctor them for her instead (including using the words correctly in an example sentence that I made up myself such as their, there, and they're) so that she could use that time to grade assignments and that would earn my score instead. Again, not once did anyone ever consider that it was autism that made me "so smart for my age." 🙃
Sounds like she just found a use for you that benefited her, but was really just additional responsibility for you that didn't serve to actually advance your education.
@LethalRain9 I can totally see that perspective, and honestly if it was any other teacher of mine I would agree! But honestly she was great and I know it was definitely more of a way to try and help keep me engaged because I was definitely tuning out from being so ahead but was too anxious to skip a grade or 2 when they had offered it. She had some really lovely conversations with me about it at the time and offered a lot of individual support for me, and looking back, I wish I could have thanked her more for all that she did for me 🫶🏼
We would have a quiz on Monday and if you got the spelling correct, you didn't have to do the sentences or the test on Friday. I never had to do the test. I would finish the math test early and then grade everyone else's tests. I was a "teacher's helper" in a few classes. No one questioned anything. I had to find out from having autistic children and noticing similar traits. I've read so much online and it's ridiculous that it was missed or overlooked. At least we had some teachers that nurtured us without knowing or understanding our challenges. I would have been so bored without additional "work" to keep my brain occupied.
@@bethanysolimine5428 I've never known someone who relates! The good teachers really do make a world of difference for us. It was one of the only years of school where I actually woke up looking forward to going, even though I love to learn!
I think this comes up in mathematics as well. I CANNOT for the life of me memorize math steps without a picture, understanding the pattern (visually) or knowing the why and being able to imagine WHAT the numbers are actually doing. I have to understand those things before I can remember the small steps to get there
Sorry so late but this sounds like me - did you have an easier time with things that were more abstract in math/that had more patterns like algebra than early arithmetic? Im not great at math by any means but I feel like with algebra there is at least a pattern to grasp on TO. Whereas early arithmetic and especially the multiplication tables, which is entirely rote learning and memorization, I just suck honestly
Fascinating. I also fall under hyperlexic...but like a sort of opposite version of this? From very, very young I was obsessed with letters, learned them very quickly, and pattern-matching came in handy with reading words and word-parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots). I'll never forget my second grade teacher making me read the assigned book forwards, backwards, randomly pointed words, and upside-down because she was convinced that my mom just helped me memorize them. This landed me in advanced English classes, where for some reason I was always the slowest reader. I've heard other folks described the reading-in-chunks thing, and idk, my brain just doesn't do that haha.
This is how I am too. Whenever I play scrabble I can come up with words that are real that I haven’t ever seen before due to knowing how roots, prefixes, and suffixes work. From single digits ages, I was consistently rivaling or even beating the fully grown adults in my family in scrabble.
My autistic 5 year old (nearly 6) speaks almost exclusively with echolalia and is also hyperlexic. He can read almost everything he sees and has never had any formal education. He just absorbed it from us reading to him and RUclips videos. Does he understand it all? Probably not. Hard to say because of the echolalia, but it's still pretty cool.
I think you might be surprised how much he understands. I was the same way at 5. I'm 29 now and I absorb information like its nothing but it usually takes a bit for me to process it and a ctually understand it but once I do I usually have a good command of the topic.
@@nateo200I agree so much!! Generally, autistic people struggle more with expressive communication than receptive communication. I want to expand on this for anyone wondering. (For those who aren’t aware:) this is partially from how our brain develops in different sequences and paces than what is considered neurotypical, and it is partially because of the double empathy problem of not having anyone around who can understand what we are expressing. However, our receptive sensitivity can vary greatly from individual to individual. Most (all?) autistic people have at least one sensory area they are extremely sensitive. For some it is language, for others it is sound, for others it is smell, etc. Whatever input(s) we are sensitive to, so our receptive communication will likely follow. Many, many autistic people understand the words spoken and the emotions of the people around them, but are unable to communicate expressively in the time and manner considered “acceptable,” and may be labeled “nonverbal” with a “flat affect.” But if you give these same people the opportunity and ability to express themselves in other ways (writing, picture boards, sign language), they will surprise you with their depth and breadth of understanding. We are just a different way of being human, and while some things are more difficult for us, other things that can be difficult for neurotypical people can be our specialty! Every living person deserves basic respect and dignity. Ableism is BS!
Also, echolalia is often a way we communicate. It can be just fun sounds and mouth feel, but often echolalia is used like sharing a meme or a gif. I understand why people might have thought it was nonsensical before these things were common, but anyone who assumes all echolalia is always just nonsense needs to sit down, shut up, and listen to actually autistic people. (Not the people in this thread; I am referring to ableist “professionals” who still repeat this misinformation and misunderstanding of autistic people.) It is a tool we use for entertainment, regulation, connection, expressing ourselves, and more. It can be a valid form of communication. It’s just different, but it is normal for us and not harmful. 😊
Most people are absolutely shocked when I reveal my level of knowledge and observation of things. I'm hyperlexic and I can't say for sure if I'm a gestalt learner but man I relate to Paige so much it is actually kind of difficult to watch her sometimes. I teach myself things in chunks and I never know what a word means unless I can compare it in multiple different sets of context.@@Ann963
hyperlexia is like the only thing that convinced people i knew i was autistic. Aka: just a bookish girl, absolutely not autistic! Reading level and speed that makes grown men feel interior: must be something unnatural! 😅😂
I had an extremely similar experience. Taught myself how to read at 5 yo EXACTLY like you, basically unassisted. I had memorized a book that was always read to me, and I just figured out which word was which. By age 12 I was speaking 2 languages fluently (my mother tongue and English) and was a beginner in Spanish. Now, at 36, I'm fluent in 4 and intermediate in 2 others. I also found learning to be the easiest part of school. I didn't have a single struggle learning any topic. Mentally, I was drowning. I went undiagnosed until my late 20s and believed for most of my life that I was a disgusting freak. I grew up in an insanely abusive household, not just verbal, beaten with a belt type of abusive. I was bullied and beaten at school as well. Had only one friend till I was about 16 (she’s ND as well.) Hoping to find a community more accepting of mental struggles, at 30, I moved by myself (and my cats) from Eastern Europe to Montréal, Canada. I couldn’t get a work visa right away, so my option was to immigrate as a student. So my old ass went to school again, in my 30s. Graduated 1st of my class. Just like in childhood, I only made one friend. Being here by myself has been so isolating and, at times, hopeless, but the only thing that has kept me going is the joy of being able to use my language skills every day. Montréal is full of polyglots. Almost everyone speaks both Fr+En for work, plus a big community of immigrants like myself that also speak their native language on top of that. It’s still hard but I feel like it pays off 🙂
Hey Paige! Congrats! This 100% appliies to my whole life! (I've never had a name for it.Thank you!) In Kindergarten, I could count to 10 in 3 languages. In Grade 3, after skipping Grade 2, on the Gates-McGuinnetty test, I scored so high my school wanted my parents permission to skip me again to Grade 5 (at grade 3 age!) I will always thank my high-school English teacher parents for leaving me with my friends.❤ The next Gates-McGuinnety test was in grade 7, and my teacher was kind enough to share the results with us. For me, Comprehension, Uni yr.3, Vocab, Uni yr.4. When I actually got to uni, McMaster (your former Alma Mater), I worked at the newspaper as a reviewer. Mostly films, but also Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompsen's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a concert by Jerry Lee Lewis. They tried very hard to hire me as an editor and a proif-reader, but I refused (pre-Asperger's diagnosis). In the present day, I just comment on RUclips. Thank you for any likes.❤😂
That is my son, he went from reading level 1 at the start of the year (prep) then by the end of the year, level 13. This year he’s struggling more with comprehension so has only just gone up a couple of levels the last 4 months. My daughter on the other hand, is very bright, and I was expecting her to be the same this year (prep) but because she didn’t have a good teacher, she’s been really slow moving up. Because the teacher hasn’t put any effort into helping her. She likes attention, so just needs someone to say well done, and give her a little bit of help making sure she understands. Hoping next year she gets a better teacher and will flourish more.
Most autistic people aren’t hyperlexic, but 84% hyperlexic people are autistic. After months of intense research and still not being sure if I’m “autistic enough”, learning about this statistic connected the dots for me. On top of all my other traits and experiences, learning I’m hyperlexic made it super clear to me that I’m definitely autistic and pushes me to pursue a diagnosis.
I loved your video, thank you for sharing. I have a 5.5 year old son on spectrum who is also Hyperlexic and a GLP. He was completely non-verbal until he turned 4. He can now speak and read well (not comprehend well though) and he is (and has always been) fascinated with letters and music. Unfortunately, he currently is unable to have any form of simple conversation or able to answer a basic question. He is in his own world 100% of the time and I worry that if he may never improve. I was hoping you or any other ASD adults who are also Hyperlexic and a GLP can share their communication/comprehension challenges, if any, back when they were a toddler and describe how they have progressed/improved over the years. Of course everyone's journey is unique but I am just looking for some encouragement that my child may improve in future. Thanks.
wait that's so fascinating. I am also a gestalt learner which made me incredibly efficient at memorising words. I was fluent in English by the age 12 and everyone around me was absolutely fascinated how I had picked up a whole new language just like that and I explained to them that I just need to understand the patterns of languages. It makes so much sense now why whenever I would tell someone that they would just look at me confused
Same! I learned to read at age two. Taught myself Spanish by reading a Berlitz book and talking to the neighbors at age 6. Then taught myself French during summer vacation in high school because I wanted to watch the French Canadian television station we received since we lived close to the border at that time. 😂 I ended up scoring higher on the AP exam than everyone in my class that had started studying the language in middle school! I later taught myself Italian on the plane ride over to Italy for vacation. I can’t speak much anymore but, 15 years later, I can still read the language pretty well.
Hey Paige! I just rewatched this vid (excellent, by the way) because you packed a lot of info into it. You did a very good job of defining Hyperlexia -- your breakdowns in general are excellent and accessible. Also, near the end, you talk about how you have many different diagnoses. This is important, because it really gets to the foundation of the Autism Spectrum. Autism is a shopping list of just so many complex and varied ummm, I'll say "conditions" rather than "disorders" (because I'm tired of the negative connotations.) Please keep going down the list and talking about the various conditions. It is extremely helpful. Thanks!💕
You've described my learning experience near damn well perfectly. And some of my issues with the way I speak😆Thank you so much for making this and sharing this.
It’s super interesting to see how you describe your reading style and your hyperlexia plays into it for you. For me, I never struggled with words or numbers, or even understanding how the two fit together. My problem has always been grammar because I couldn’t remember the rules because of how different they were and how almost all the sayings that I’d been taught always had exceptions. They were only guidelines not rules. It made me read so far past others of my age group that my reading comprehension was tested to be high school level in second/third grade. I won a few simple awards for my essays because of how I explained things. I got first place in summer reading quizzes because I understood the book. One time there was a county/district wide system that tested students on the books that they read and counted the words in each book. Passed every time and I was reading a new book every two or three days. It’s now at the point where despite not remembering basic grammar rules in my writing and sometimes language, I struggle to find smaller words to fit my meaning. Why use sad when I mean dejected or bitter. Sometimes I didn’t even realize that my words were hard to understand for those my age, and I got constantly stopped mid sentence to explain what a word meant. Which led to long winding explanations because I felt like that was the only way for people to understand what I meant. It’s a constant struggle with something so mundane yet important.
I had this problem. People thought I was snooty. Now that I have gray hair and teach at a university, people just accept it. And I’ve accepted that I like big words and don’t mind teaching people new words.
My autistic kid was similar and...I was convinced it wasn't hyperlexia because the tested comprehension seemed to be keeping pace. I was an early reader as well, so didn't associate it with autism. Of course...I'm a parent of two neurodivergent kids, so...whether I'm neurotypical is up for debate.
@@amw6846 I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m self-diagnosed. I don’t see any benefit to getting a formal diagnosis. I’m just glad to know. Now I give myself grace, knowing I have a condition, instead of beating myself up for not knowing or behaving the same way everyone else does. I listen to my body more, too, instead of trying to push myself to be like everyone else-embracing my hyper focus periods, but being careful to have visual reminders to eat and drink, and giving in to the urge to sleep or not move the next day or two. The biggest change I’ve made is to start wearing noise-canceling headphones pretty much everywhere. They have significantly improved my quality of life. Now I enjoy going to more public events-like movies, sporting events, and the theater-and even walking outside for exercise because I’m not spending energy steeling myself against the pain while trying to look normal. It’s been amazing!
This is so fascinating. I think I’m autistic & I definitely have hyperlexia & am a very gestalt thinker. I had a grad school interview recently & the professor was asking me about hyperlexia & I didn’t know how to explain it. This is so well-put. I love your videos so much, thanks chica!!
This makes so much sense for me, thank you! Especially the way you described messing up a song, not so much by messing up a word (except I mishear words plenty too), but moving entire sections. I also tend to read in chunks, and I do it out of order. This is why I find it 1000 times easier to read research than I do fiction. You don’t have to read a research paper in order necessarily, but a narrative gets confusing as hell if you skip around. Don’t know why my brain does that, but it’s all over the page!
My daughter is autistic (as am I) and she is hyperlexic and a gestalt learner! The way she learned how to speak was a our first indicator she was autistic as well.
I am dyslexic so the hyperlexia not so much, though i learned spoken words very quickly. I did not know there was a word for gestalt learning. Makes sense to me as i think in discrete ideas and then have to translate to english. The more complex the harder it is to do reliably at speed😅
I have every one of the diagnoses you listed too, except for one. I'm really appreciating your channel, just discovered it. The explanation of PDA makes so much more sense than when my therapist explained it; I now realize confidently that that is me too. That yellow is fire. Subscribed.
I think I'm also hyperlexic. I learnt reading very quickly. My mom always made sure I had books around even when I was 4/5 years old. At 6 years old, I found the flashcards and reading books easy. I started reading adult chapter books in middle school. My auditory memory is crap though, so I always felt like a genius in art and creative writing/English classes, but dumb in most everything else.
i'll read 2-3 pages of a book and then move on to another book and do the same thing, and then do it again with another book, reading short parts going through them walk around a bit get some snacks and read a few more pages of another book. sometime i do this with more than a dozen books scattered throughout my house. i think this is the result of a neurological brain structure of mine that is bipolar, ADHC, and autistic
Interesting as a dyslexic I was able to mask a lot of my reading problems early on because I had memorized all the books in the house that had been read to me. Later I became a slow reader with great reading comprehension because I managed to change words into pictures and when things moved around I had to use the context to figure out what it was supposed to be.
I had some trouble with reading until second grade. Then it clicked. I read like a whole sentence at once. I started reading a ton of books. By third grade I read at a 6th grade level. By 6th grade I read at a 12th grade level. I could also understand what I read. I got a 34 out of 36 in reading comprehension on the ACT test. But I can't function in life.
I was at grade 5 reading level (you're supposed to read like an adult at that point) in grade 1 and I learned two foreign languages by watching tv-shows with subtitles in my first language and repeating phrases after actors. Never knew it was an autism thing
When I was 4 my dad bought me a series of educational videogames and one of them was for learning to read. I spent the whole afternoon with it and by the next day the kindergarten called my parents because magically I knew how to read everything they put in front of my face when they had just started to teach us the alphabet. I remember the game using different patterns for you to construct and deconstruct words by syllables like a puzzle and how once the patterns clicked in my brain I just knew how to read words, albeit with the same structured out loud voice that the game narrator used and that I had spend the whole gaming session imitating. My parents also have a lot of funny stories of toddler me blurting out quotes from movies and sentences I had heard from adult conversations and startling those who were not part of my family. If I finished my work early I always had a book with me and I was praised by teachers for my high level of reading and writing, but books also worked as a shield against social interactions and verbal communication which I was not really good at. I also changed schools a lot and experienced a fair amount of teaching methods but most of the time it felt like if I truly wanted to understand something I had to just teach it to myself in my own way, sometimes after school, which lead to a confusing consensus on my intelligence from my teachers across my whole schooling experience. My math teacher almost popped a vein once when I explained to her that I had never memorized the multiplication tables but instead developed a personal method for when they needed to be used, which seemed ridiculous and unnecessary for her but the easiest and only way to memorize them for me.
"I spent a lot of years bored, and a lot of years excessively stressed" Yes! This is sooo true, I had that as well! School is neurotypical, the school system usually teaches things in a neurotypical way, so autistic children learn differently, but school doesn't care about their special needs. In primary school we usually learn very fast and it's quite boringly easy (it was the same for me), but in secondary school things get really hard. I have to admit that school systems can have a huge impact here. Here in Germany, if kids are very successful in primary school, they get sent to the first-tier educational system, the "Gymnasium", and I think a lot of autistic students get sent there just because they are so successful in primary school. But then the school system gets aggressively hard and our needs aren't met, we constantly get unclear assignments, our sensory processing issues aren't addressed and our particular troubles in subjects that aren't our special interests aren't taken into account. Autistic people probably succeed more in schools where you are allowed to have more autonomy and are allowed to choose your subjects more, and if you don't have to do so many group assignments. Then autistic people probably have a much harder time if they aren't given a predictable schedule or if their teachers change a lot or they constantly get substitute teachers who completely change the rhythm of learning.
Quite interesting to learn about. I could read and write no problem in school, far advanced than my classmates- grade 11 in grade 4, but my comprehension has always lagged. I love to learn and still do, but struggled with that aspect in school obviously because testing is hard for me, I’ll forget everything I need to know for tests.
Ya know , I’m autistic and dyslexic and also have ADHD and so yes you can actually see the big picture if you’re autistic, especially if you’re dyslexic!
You said you likely have 25 diagnoses in the DSM-5. My psychologist said it is poor practice to give a heap of diagnoses as they end up conflicting which other. Also a heap of diagnoses could have trauma as the root.
I have been given 14 or 15 diagnoses from the DSM (not all at once) over a 30 year period. Many were incorrect. They had a hard time figuring me out. I do have PTSD and autism.
@@BipolarCourage She wasn't diagnosed with that many. She just thought that she could be. That means she is guessing and it is highly unlikely that she would be.
In primary or elementary school i had to go to a part of ours called the centre for excellence and practice my comprehension skills, but I've always been an exceptional and avid reader. Plus super great at word searches, puzzles, trivia and quizzes. So even though early on i had trouble understanding some things i read it basically came down to the fact i was reading things well above what my typical age group would at that developmental stage.
Have you ever studied a different language? I've found that I'm hyperlexic in Spanish and French, too. I really excel at reading text and memorizing vocabulary, but I'm terrible at speaking/listening.
I excel at memorizing vocabulary in foreign languages but I am not good at grammar. I am better at speaking than understanding because I am very creative at getting my point across.
Kind of funny you put this on now. My friends and I were talking and laughing at me because I think Lorde 's songs all sound like one long song, they sound the same.
Say more of what you personally think, don’t be afraid of it. People who will get offended because you’re honestly expressing your opinions aren’t worth your consideration
Well shit, I just learned what being a gestalt learner means. I didn't know it was a thing, but that is definitely how I learn. If I can connect theoretical elements into an intuitive understanding of a subject, I can learn quickly and am able to apply that new knowledge flexibly. But if I need to do rote memorisation (looking at you, biochemistry!)by head breaks completely
It always bothered me in elementary school when the kids wouldn't use inflection with their reading. We were all just learning so they were just trying to read the words, I'm sure, but my brain was always screaming, " That person is excited. They should read it excitedly! Why is everyone so flat?" I just thought that I was a fast learner. I had no idea it was autism/adhd.
I'm not officially diagnosed with anything but have a sibling and possibly a parent who are both high-functioning autistic, and while I'm different from them in ways that make me pretty clearly not so classically autistic, this channel is making me realize more than I already did that I have quite a lot of autism-associated traits, which I guess does track genetically. Definitely have some hyperlexia (children's chapter books by age 4, Harry Potter by 7, Lord of the Rings by 11) and had echolalia as part of Tourette's symptoms that have gotten much milder with age. Plus some mild ADD and OCD associated traits, chronic mild-to-moderate depression, and as I recently learned from another of your videos definitely some mild PDA associated traits. So while I'm definitely not conventionally autistic in things like reading body language and subtle social cues (if anything I'm better than average at that), tolerating noisy and hyperstimulating environments, shutdowns and meltdowns, etc. it's pretty cool to become more aware of the autism-adjacent ND traits I have and how those have affected my life.
I can read fast , I don’t comprehend it either. I definitely have some kind of dyslexia because the paragraphs move when I read do I have to use a book mark to keep my place on the page im reading so I feel like that’s different from hyperlexia but I am autistic but this was very good for me to learn about this
Is it possible that the gestalt way of thinking helped me memorise rythm verses in poems much faster than the other kids? I don't know, it might have something to do with my memory, but instead of learning a poem beforehand, I could listen to few kids chanting it and memorise it and retell it, then most likely forget it. Because I wasn't quite trying to learn the poem as a piece of lore or storytelling, but more of a geometric structure of words that have rythm and make sense as a whole, rather than the details? I am not sure...
Thank you so much for this. Do you have any suggestions to increase comprehension? My daughter is struggling with this in school. Great reader, struggling with the comprehension.
Most of your particularities are the genetic expression of your genes DNA is the constituent of genes. Much depends on our expressed genetic inheritance, but there is also an original renewal system (the novo). On the quantum spectrum we find many things in common like hypersensitivity, high potential intelligence, autism.
I'm not sure what type of learner I am. I just know that I always struggled in school because of the stress and the need of having to learn stuff I am not interested in. Naturally I am an curious person and like to learn new things, but not while I was at school. It is also interesting that my favorite subjects were language when I was very late at learning to speak and even if I still speak I do not speak a lot. English is my second language and I'm kind of better at writing English than speaking. Math was and is the subject I hate the most. I can't understand it whatsoever and it takes me slowmotion to learn. I think I have to understand the information to be able to learn it.
I like the new background paint and lights. You're a gestalt learner, but are you a gestalt teacher? You gave a big truck example, so I think yes. Mind you did have an explanation building up to that, but I still think yes.
First time hearing about any of this and it's hitting home. Thank you for all you do. I am 40+ person who just learned she is likely autistic and you've been a great help. Anyway, I can't help but wonder if the reason I am so good at communicating with chatGPT (seems others struggle with it at my job) is because AI thinks in chunks of data, too??! Mind blown!??! Nerding out big time! lol Mkay, gonna go watch the rest of your video now.
I know a lot of people who are not accepting or accommodating of autism that seem very autistic imo, usually older folks who probably struggled with their autism but never were aware or offered accommodations for it
when you’re ok with using memoization to read it becomes easier, I refuse to use the quick memorisation feature in my brain when the ting doesn’t make inherent sense. When I was 7 years old I really thought that if I told someone how to make words more logical that if the teacher agreed that they could get it changed some how, or just agree to let me write it that way. But in reality its easier to approach change “from the top” “don’t explain it to the employee, explain it to the CEO”
Hyperlexia✋🏻 I didn’t know it had a name, just that I could do it, when my peers couldn’t. At a young age, I found that I had to re-read chapters, in order to process the material. I also found that I didn’t enjoy fiction, but loved historical literature. It was a “lies versus truth” thing. (I’m not sure about the Gesalt thinker concept. I don’t really understand it)
I always had problems with language, b seeing language as a puzzle that can fit in many ways, leading to cognitive dissonance, undermining any form of hyperlexia that I would feel but not be able to know
I have about 2-4 pages of information I want to say when I feel I want to say something. And I would speak at once those pages, while forgetting what I just said
This tho it’s like lightbulb lmao I think it’s always kinda got me just because once I see the words then I can easily point to it but yet if I didn’t have your help like guidance (almost as if I need someone to help me think thru my thoughts there in order to come up with a single line or sentence/thought) almost as if I wouldn’t have been able to answer that all by myself lol it’s almost like saying rather then people ask me open ended questions they give me choice and I’ll give them the closest one (unless it’s one of those times I know EXACTLY what I wanna say// which doesn’t mean I will do it lol because ofc a lot of times I mess that up in the moment too like I’ll reflect back on it later and just be like why did I say that because it was a more negative word sounded worse than I had wanted/ intended) I don’t know it’s all just weird bodies are weird lol
Very smart autism , would make a good mother . Don’t question it , I didn’t have a good mother and had to learn to be a better person . I had a good step mother . I ended up a narc , and a healthy one , covert , overt , genetically including brains . This reminded me . :)
Wow kinda interesting how in some ways autistic people are so similar and in some ways where so different. By contrast to you in dyslexic. I didn't learn to read till I was about 8 or 9 and it took a lot of help to get me there. Even still I read much slower than your average person. That said when I was reading my comprehension was really good. My teachers would say that I have no idea how they managed to understand so much given how many mistakes they made but as long as it gets in there somehow who cares. Also verbally I was very strong too. I had a very large vocabulary even from a young age, and would regularly get asked "how do you know that word?" Even now I'm far better at processing information verbally. I love listening to audiobooks, and will regularly listen at 2x the speed or more. Everyone else tells me they have no idea what anyone is saying, bit I'm so use to it now I don't even notice that it's faster than normal.
Has anyone experienced tickertaping? Where you see “subtitles” in your head during conversation? When I was in elementary school, my brain would do it automatically and cause me a significant amount of stress. Now as an adult I guess I can sort of “turn it off” or direction elsewhere, but it has never went away. Would this be a form of echolalia??
I was the fastest to learn to read in elementary school and in college I struggle because it seems to take me twice as long to read stuff. Anyone else? Any idea why?
I didn't know what these were or that they were autistic traits. I was reading at a post high school level in 3rd grade. I also never even realized that a lot of the "annoying" things I did as a kid were considered echolalia. I was always told "you watch too much TV" because I could quote entire commercials. I would always reply with "No I dont! (This was true, I always had my head in a damn book) I've only seen this once!" I couldn't comprehend how people couldn't remember commercials and songs after the first listen like I could. I think probably the most annoying thing I did was I could say what someone else was saying as they were saying it (albeit with a very slight delay) and I was able to guess with like 95% accuracy what they were going to say based on the sound of the first quarter of the first syllable. I pissed a lot of people off doing that, but hey, at least my peers thought I could read minds 😂
Not intending to sound rude here, this topic is interesting to learn.... but if hyperlexia and gestalt thinking are associated with autism, are they also at work in those on the spectrum who are nonverbal? And are the broad-picture thinking and rapid pattern-finding also extend outside language, like numbers and general math?
is hyperlexia like reading your thoughts. that's what i do. anytime i hear words i have to picture them and analyze them in my mind. makes it hard to answer questions though cuz either i literally pause awkwardly to go back and read and analyze the question or i purposely skip the question to skip the awkward pause and blurt out the first thing in my head. which is weird because i feel like i have to stand by that blurted out response after. lol
Dame i got the short end of the stick of being autistic. I learn how to draw my words.. thats it. I cant speak, read, listen, and understand words. I was a language hater growing up. There was no cear rule i could lanch on that can help me learn. Now im older i learn its not just words. I struggle with all the ways to communication. Body language, basic point and look sign language, etc. If it wasnt for my mother to read anime subtitles out loud for an entire 21 episode series. I would be worse then i am. Anime will always save the day. But math i love it the strick rules that cant be broken. Patterns, formula all fun and easy to learn. I enjoy math but reading no nononono i hate that stuff.
![Autistic Speech Patterns [CC]](/img/1.gif)
"I spent a lot of years bored, and a lot of years excessively stressed", never heard anything more relatable in my life 😂 describes my entire education.
This hit me hard too LOL
yeah Grades 3 through 5, 7 & 8 of my education were absolute total wastes of time.
I'd definitely say I'm a gestalt thinker, and this is definitely considered an autistic trait. Which is weird in a sense, since the general stereotype is that autistic people fail to see the big picture, and are focused on details. I don't think these are both true, I think being detail oriented does not mean you fail to see the big picture. In other words, I think it's a mistake to say that autistic people don't see the big picture just because we don't see the same picture that neurotypicals do.
I wonder if it’s possible that we do see the big picture, but it’s just that we see ALL of the big picture, and our priorities on what to focus on tends to be more of the sensory experiences which are usually the things near to us🤔
In elementary school and middle school, they made us take yearly standardized tests to see what our reading level was. I was in 5th grade when I scored at "post-high school level" and no one ever questioned if I was autistic because I was "so smart." I was only in 3rd grade when my teacher decided that instead of having me take our class spelling tests that I always scored perfectly on, she would have me proctor them for her instead (including using the words correctly in an example sentence that I made up myself such as their, there, and they're) so that she could use that time to grade assignments and that would earn my score instead. Again, not once did anyone ever consider that it was autism that made me "so smart for my age." 🙃
Sounds like she just found a use for you that benefited her, but was really just additional responsibility for you that didn't serve to actually advance your education.
@LethalRain9 I can totally see that perspective, and honestly if it was any other teacher of mine I would agree! But honestly she was great and I know it was definitely more of a way to try and help keep me engaged because I was definitely tuning out from being so ahead but was too anxious to skip a grade or 2 when they had offered it. She had some really lovely conversations with me about it at the time and offered a lot of individual support for me, and looking back, I wish I could have thanked her more for all that she did for me 🫶🏼
We would have a quiz on Monday and if you got the spelling correct, you didn't have to do the sentences or the test on Friday. I never had to do the test. I would finish the math test early and then grade everyone else's tests. I was a "teacher's helper" in a few classes. No one questioned anything. I had to find out from having autistic children and noticing similar traits. I've read so much online and it's ridiculous that it was missed or overlooked. At least we had some teachers that nurtured us without knowing or understanding our challenges. I would have been so bored without additional "work" to keep my brain occupied.
@@bethanysolimine5428 I've never known someone who relates! The good teachers really do make a world of difference for us. It was one of the only years of school where I actually woke up looking forward to going, even though I love to learn!
I think this comes up in mathematics as well. I CANNOT for the life of me memorize math steps without a picture, understanding the pattern (visually) or knowing the why and being able to imagine WHAT the numbers are actually doing. I have to understand those things before I can remember the small steps to get there
YES!!!
Sorry so late but this sounds like me - did you have an easier time with things that were more abstract in math/that had more patterns like algebra than early arithmetic?
Im not great at math by any means but I feel like with algebra there is at least a pattern to grasp on TO. Whereas early arithmetic and especially the multiplication tables, which is entirely rote learning and memorization, I just suck honestly
me fr!! idk if it's autism or adhd but having an example of a type of exercise that we have to do in a test helps me sm
Fascinating. I also fall under hyperlexic...but like a sort of opposite version of this? From very, very young I was obsessed with letters, learned them very quickly, and pattern-matching came in handy with reading words and word-parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots). I'll never forget my second grade teacher making me read the assigned book forwards, backwards, randomly pointed words, and upside-down because she was convinced that my mom just helped me memorize them. This landed me in advanced English classes, where for some reason I was always the slowest reader. I've heard other folks described the reading-in-chunks thing, and idk, my brain just doesn't do that haha.
This is how I am too. Whenever I play scrabble I can come up with words that are real that I haven’t ever seen before due to knowing how roots, prefixes, and suffixes work. From single digits ages, I was consistently rivaling or even beating the fully grown adults in my family in scrabble.
My autistic 5 year old (nearly 6) speaks almost exclusively with echolalia and is also hyperlexic. He can read almost everything he sees and has never had any formal education. He just absorbed it from us reading to him and RUclips videos. Does he understand it all? Probably not. Hard to say because of the echolalia, but it's still pretty cool.
I think you might be surprised how much he understands. I was the same way at 5. I'm 29 now and I absorb information like its nothing but it usually takes a bit for me to process it and a ctually understand it but once I do I usually have a good command of the topic.
@@nateo200I agree so much!! Generally, autistic people struggle more with expressive communication than receptive communication. I want to expand on this for anyone wondering.
(For those who aren’t aware:) this is partially from how our brain develops in different sequences and paces than what is considered neurotypical, and it is partially because of the double empathy problem of not having anyone around who can understand what we are expressing.
However, our receptive sensitivity can vary greatly from individual to individual. Most (all?) autistic people have at least one sensory area they are extremely sensitive. For some it is language, for others it is sound, for others it is smell, etc. Whatever input(s) we are sensitive to, so our receptive communication will likely follow.
Many, many autistic people understand the words spoken and the emotions of the people around them, but are unable to communicate expressively in the time and manner considered “acceptable,” and may be labeled “nonverbal” with a “flat affect.” But if you give these same people the opportunity and ability to express themselves in other ways (writing, picture boards, sign language), they will surprise you with their depth and breadth of understanding.
We are just a different way of being human, and while some things are more difficult for us, other things that can be difficult for neurotypical people can be our specialty! Every living person deserves basic respect and dignity. Ableism is BS!
Also, echolalia is often a way we communicate. It can be just fun sounds and mouth feel, but often echolalia is used like sharing a meme or a gif. I understand why people might have thought it was nonsensical before these things were common, but anyone who assumes all echolalia is always just nonsense needs to sit down, shut up, and listen to actually autistic people. (Not the people in this thread; I am referring to ableist “professionals” who still repeat this misinformation and misunderstanding of autistic people.)
It is a tool we use for entertainment, regulation, connection, expressing ourselves, and more. It can be a valid form of communication. It’s just different, but it is normal for us and not harmful. 😊
Most people are absolutely shocked when I reveal my level of knowledge and observation of things. I'm hyperlexic and I can't say for sure if I'm a gestalt learner but man I relate to Paige so much it is actually kind of difficult to watch her sometimes. I teach myself things in chunks and I never know what a word means unless I can compare it in multiple different sets of context.@@Ann963
Well, that explains why my "first word" was a complete sentence.
“That’s a really 😲 moment, that’s a really good 😮💨 moment… I can’t explain it.”
As a music guy, somehow very relatable lol
hyperlexia is like the only thing that convinced people i knew i was autistic. Aka: just a bookish girl, absolutely not autistic! Reading level and speed that makes grown men feel interior: must be something unnatural! 😅😂
I had an extremely similar experience. Taught myself how to read at 5 yo EXACTLY like you, basically unassisted. I had memorized a book that was always read to me, and I just figured out which word was which. By age 12 I was speaking 2 languages fluently (my mother tongue and English) and was a beginner in Spanish. Now, at 36, I'm fluent in 4 and intermediate in 2 others. I also found learning to be the easiest part of school. I didn't have a single struggle learning any topic.
Mentally, I was drowning. I went undiagnosed until my late 20s and believed for most of my life that I was a disgusting freak. I grew up in an insanely abusive household, not just verbal, beaten with a belt type of abusive. I was bullied and beaten at school as well. Had only one friend till I was about 16 (she’s ND as well.)
Hoping to find a community more accepting of mental struggles, at 30, I moved by myself (and my cats) from Eastern Europe to Montréal, Canada. I couldn’t get a work visa right away, so my option was to immigrate as a student. So my old ass went to school again, in my 30s. Graduated 1st of my class. Just like in childhood, I only made one friend.
Being here by myself has been so isolating and, at times, hopeless, but the only thing that has kept me going is the joy of being able to use my language skills every day. Montréal is full of polyglots. Almost everyone speaks both Fr+En for work, plus a big community of immigrants like myself that also speak their native language on top of that. It’s still hard but I feel like it pays off 🙂
As someone who 'watches' a lot of video by letting them play in the background, I appreciate your end of the video song so much!
Hey Paige! Congrats! This 100% appliies to my whole life! (I've never had a name for it.Thank you!) In Kindergarten, I could count to 10 in 3 languages. In Grade 3, after skipping Grade 2, on the Gates-McGuinnetty test, I scored so high my school wanted my parents permission to skip me again to Grade 5 (at grade 3 age!) I will always thank my high-school English teacher parents for leaving me with my friends.❤ The next Gates-McGuinnety test was in grade 7, and my teacher was kind enough to share the results with us. For me, Comprehension, Uni yr.3, Vocab, Uni yr.4. When I actually got to uni, McMaster (your former Alma Mater), I worked at the newspaper as a reviewer. Mostly films, but also Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompsen's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a concert by Jerry Lee Lewis. They tried very hard to hire me as an editor and a proif-reader, but I refused (pre-Asperger's diagnosis). In the present day, I just comment on RUclips. Thank you for any likes.❤😂
That is my son, he went from reading level 1 at the start of the year (prep) then by the end of the year, level 13. This year he’s struggling more with comprehension so has only just gone up a couple of levels the last 4 months.
My daughter on the other hand, is very bright, and I was expecting her to be the same this year (prep) but because she didn’t have a good teacher, she’s been really slow moving up. Because the teacher hasn’t put any effort into helping her. She likes attention, so just needs someone to say well done, and give her a little bit of help making sure she understands.
Hoping next year she gets a better teacher and will flourish more.
Most autistic people aren’t hyperlexic, but 84% hyperlexic people are autistic. After months of intense research and still not being sure if I’m “autistic enough”, learning about this statistic connected the dots for me. On top of all my other traits and experiences, learning I’m hyperlexic made it super clear to me that I’m definitely autistic and pushes me to pursue a diagnosis.
I loved your video, thank you for sharing. I have a 5.5 year old son on spectrum who is also Hyperlexic and a GLP. He was completely non-verbal until he turned 4. He can now speak and read well (not comprehend well though) and he is (and has always been) fascinated with letters and music. Unfortunately, he currently is unable to have any form of simple conversation or able to answer a basic question. He is in his own world 100% of the time and I worry that if he may never improve. I was hoping you or any other ASD adults who are also Hyperlexic and a GLP can share their communication/comprehension challenges, if any, back when they were a toddler and describe how they have progressed/improved over the years. Of course everyone's journey is unique but I am just looking for some encouragement that my child may improve in future. Thanks.
wait that's so fascinating. I am also a gestalt learner which made me incredibly efficient at memorising words. I was fluent in English by the age 12 and everyone around me was absolutely fascinated how I had picked up a whole new language just like that and I explained to them that I just need to understand the patterns of languages. It makes so much sense now why whenever I would tell someone that they would just look at me confused
Same! I learned to read at age two. Taught myself Spanish by reading a Berlitz book and talking to the neighbors at age 6. Then taught myself French during summer vacation in high school because I wanted to watch the French Canadian television station we received since we lived close to the border at that time. 😂 I ended up scoring higher on the AP exam than everyone in my class that had started studying the language in middle school! I later taught myself Italian on the plane ride over to Italy for vacation. I can’t speak much anymore but, 15 years later, I can still read the language pretty well.
Thanks for your video, I am so happy to see gestalt learners talking about their experiences, it really help me to understand my daughter
Hey Paige! I just rewatched this vid (excellent, by the way) because you packed a lot of info into it. You did a very good job of defining Hyperlexia -- your breakdowns in general are excellent and accessible. Also, near the end, you talk about how you have many different diagnoses. This is important, because it really gets to the foundation of the Autism Spectrum. Autism is a shopping list of just so many complex and varied ummm, I'll say "conditions" rather than "disorders" (because I'm tired of the negative connotations.) Please keep going down the list and talking about the various conditions. It is extremely helpful. Thanks!💕
You've described my learning experience near damn well perfectly. And some of my issues with the way I speak😆Thank you so much for making this and sharing this.
It’s super interesting to see how you describe your reading style and your hyperlexia plays into it for you. For me, I never struggled with words or numbers, or even understanding how the two fit together. My problem has always been grammar because I couldn’t remember the rules because of how different they were and how almost all the sayings that I’d been taught always had exceptions. They were only guidelines not rules. It made me read so far past others of my age group that my reading comprehension was tested to be high school level in second/third grade. I won a few simple awards for my essays because of how I explained things. I got first place in summer reading quizzes because I understood the book. One time there was a county/district wide system that tested students on the books that they read and counted the words in each book. Passed every time and I was reading a new book every two or three days. It’s now at the point where despite not remembering basic grammar rules in my writing and sometimes language, I struggle to find smaller words to fit my meaning. Why use sad when I mean dejected or bitter. Sometimes I didn’t even realize that my words were hard to understand for those my age, and I got constantly stopped mid sentence to explain what a word meant. Which led to long winding explanations because I felt like that was the only way for people to understand what I meant. It’s a constant struggle with something so mundane yet important.
I had this problem. People thought I was snooty. Now that I have gray hair and teach at a university, people just accept it. And I’ve accepted that I like big words and don’t mind teaching people new words.
My autistic kid was similar and...I was convinced it wasn't hyperlexia because the tested comprehension seemed to be keeping pace. I was an early reader as well, so didn't associate it with autism. Of course...I'm a parent of two neurodivergent kids, so...whether I'm neurotypical is up for debate.
@@amw6846 Not having kids myself, I found out about my autism when my brothers’ children were identified.
@@Lyandra01 yep. I'm not sure it's worth me getting diagnosed at this age, particularly since I've learned to navigate life relatively successfully.
@@amw6846 I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m self-diagnosed. I don’t see any benefit to getting a formal diagnosis. I’m just glad to know. Now I give myself grace, knowing I have a condition, instead of beating myself up for not knowing or behaving the same way everyone else does. I listen to my body more, too, instead of trying to push myself to be like everyone else-embracing my hyper focus periods, but being careful to have visual reminders to eat and drink, and giving in to the urge to sleep or not move the next day or two. The biggest change I’ve made is to start wearing noise-canceling headphones pretty much everywhere. They have significantly improved my quality of life. Now I enjoy going to more public events-like movies, sporting events, and the theater-and even walking outside for exercise because I’m not spending energy steeling myself against the pain while trying to look normal. It’s been amazing!
This is so fascinating. I think I’m autistic & I definitely have hyperlexia & am a very gestalt thinker. I had a grad school interview recently & the professor was asking me about hyperlexia & I didn’t know how to explain it. This is so well-put. I love your videos so much, thanks chica!!
Thank you for talking about your experience and how we learn 😊
Glad to see you explain this well in detail, your great at educating people
I've always loved barre combinations. Battements of all sizes are little puzzles to be continually solved.
This makes so much sense for me, thank you! Especially the way you described messing up a song, not so much by messing up a word (except I mishear words plenty too), but moving entire sections.
I also tend to read in chunks, and I do it out of order. This is why I find it 1000 times easier to read research than I do fiction. You don’t have to read a research paper in order necessarily, but a narrative gets confusing as hell if you skip around. Don’t know why my brain does that, but it’s all over the page!
My daughter is autistic (as am I) and she is hyperlexic and a gestalt learner! The way she learned how to speak was a our first indicator she was autistic as well.
I am dyslexic so the hyperlexia not so much, though i learned spoken words very quickly.
I did not know there was a word for gestalt learning. Makes sense to me as i think in discrete ideas and then have to translate to english.
The more complex the harder it is to do reliably at speed😅
I have every one of the diagnoses you listed too, except for one. I'm really appreciating your channel, just discovered it. The explanation of PDA makes so much more sense than when my therapist explained it; I now realize confidently that that is me too.
That yellow is fire. Subscribed.
Not me being a dyslexic autistic and the opposite of this 😂
You are not alone ❤
Same!
I think I'm also hyperlexic. I learnt reading very quickly. My mom always made sure I had books around even when I was 4/5 years old. At 6 years old, I found the flashcards and reading books easy. I started reading adult chapter books in middle school. My auditory memory is crap though, so I always felt like a genius in art and creative writing/English classes, but dumb in most everything else.
i'll read 2-3 pages of a book and then move on to another book and do the same thing, and then do it again with another book, reading short parts going through them walk around a bit get some snacks and read a few more pages of another book. sometime i do this with more than a dozen books scattered throughout my house.
i think this is the result of a neurological brain structure of mine that is bipolar, ADHC, and autistic
I really appreciate this insight, my son with Hyperlexia type 3 is 3
Interesting as a dyslexic I was able to mask a lot of my reading problems early on because I had memorized all the books in the house that had been read to me. Later I became a slow reader with great reading comprehension because I managed to change words into pictures and when things moved around I had to use the context to figure out what it was supposed to be.
I had some trouble with reading until second grade. Then it clicked. I read like a whole sentence at once. I started reading a ton of books. By third grade I read at a 6th grade level. By 6th grade I read at a 12th grade level. I could also understand what I read. I got a 34 out of 36 in reading comprehension on the ACT test.
But I can't function in life.
I was at grade 5 reading level (you're supposed to read like an adult at that point) in grade 1 and I learned two foreign languages by watching tv-shows with subtitles in my first language and repeating phrases after actors. Never knew it was an autism thing
Just preordered your book! Thank you so much for explaining this 🩷
When I was 4 my dad bought me a series of educational videogames and one of them was for learning to read. I spent the whole afternoon with it and by the next day the kindergarten called my parents because magically I knew how to read everything they put in front of my face when they had just started to teach us the alphabet. I remember the game using different patterns for you to construct and deconstruct words by syllables like a puzzle and how once the patterns clicked in my brain I just knew how to read words, albeit with the same structured out loud voice that the game narrator used and that I had spend the whole gaming session imitating. My parents also have a lot of funny stories of toddler me blurting out quotes from movies and sentences I had heard from adult conversations and startling those who were not part of my family.
If I finished my work early I always had a book with me and I was praised by teachers for my high level of reading and writing, but books also worked as a shield against social interactions and verbal communication which I was not really good at.
I also changed schools a lot and experienced a fair amount of teaching methods but most of the time it felt like if I truly wanted to understand something I had to just teach it to myself in my own way, sometimes after school, which lead to a confusing consensus on my intelligence from my teachers across my whole schooling experience. My math teacher almost popped a vein once when I explained to her that I had never memorized the multiplication tables but instead developed a personal method for when they needed to be used, which seemed ridiculous and unnecessary for her but the easiest and only way to memorize them for me.
"I spent a lot of years bored, and a lot of years excessively stressed"
Yes! This is sooo true, I had that as well!
School is neurotypical, the school system usually teaches things in a neurotypical way, so autistic children learn differently, but school doesn't care about their special needs. In primary school we usually learn very fast and it's quite boringly easy (it was the same for me), but in secondary school things get really hard.
I have to admit that school systems can have a huge impact here. Here in Germany, if kids are very successful in primary school, they get sent to the first-tier educational system, the "Gymnasium", and I think a lot of autistic students get sent there just because they are so successful in primary school. But then the school system gets aggressively hard and our needs aren't met, we constantly get unclear assignments, our sensory processing issues aren't addressed and our particular troubles in subjects that aren't our special interests aren't taken into account.
Autistic people probably succeed more in schools where you are allowed to have more autonomy and are allowed to choose your subjects more, and if you don't have to do so many group assignments. Then autistic people probably have a much harder time if they aren't given a predictable schedule or if their teachers change a lot or they constantly get substitute teachers who completely change the rhythm of learning.
Quite interesting to learn about. I could read and write no problem in school, far advanced than my classmates- grade 11 in grade 4, but my comprehension has always lagged. I love to learn and still do, but struggled with that aspect in school obviously because testing is hard for me, I’ll forget everything I need to know for tests.
Ya know , I’m autistic and dyslexic and also have ADHD and so yes you can actually see the big picture if you’re autistic, especially if you’re dyslexic!
thanks, this vid kinda help boost my self-esteem :-)
You said you likely have 25 diagnoses in the DSM-5. My
psychologist said it is poor practice to give a heap of diagnoses as they end up conflicting which other.
Also a heap of diagnoses could have trauma as the root.
I have been given 14 or 15 diagnoses from the DSM (not all at once) over a 30 year period. Many were incorrect. They had a hard time figuring me out. I do have PTSD and autism.
@@Catlily5 also bipolar if I recall correctly? Which can look like just about anything depending on where at. Especially if have trauma in the mix.
@@BipolarCourage Yes, I have bipolar as well. Though I do not have a typical case.
@@Catlily5 well if you have as complicated picture like I do, it's not surprising that various labels are proposed. But 25 diagnoses is ridiculous.
@@BipolarCourage She wasn't diagnosed with that many. She just thought that she could be. That means she is guessing and it is highly unlikely that she would be.
In primary or elementary school i had to go to a part of ours called the centre for excellence and practice my comprehension skills, but I've always been an exceptional and avid reader. Plus super great at word searches, puzzles, trivia and quizzes. So even though early on i had trouble understanding some things i read it basically came down to the fact i was reading things well above what my typical age group would at that developmental stage.
Have you ever studied a different language? I've found that I'm hyperlexic in Spanish and French, too. I really excel at reading text and memorizing vocabulary, but I'm terrible at speaking/listening.
I excel at memorizing vocabulary in foreign languages but I am not good at grammar. I am better at speaking than understanding because I am very creative at getting my point across.
Kind of funny you put this on now. My friends and I were talking and laughing at me because I think Lorde 's songs all sound like one long song, they sound the same.
What you said in the ending is the best part of all your videos
Say more of what you personally think, don’t be afraid of it. People who will get offended because you’re honestly expressing your opinions aren’t worth your consideration
Well shit, I just learned what being a gestalt learner means. I didn't know it was a thing, but that is definitely how I learn. If I can connect theoretical elements into an intuitive understanding of a subject, I can learn quickly and am able to apply that new knowledge flexibly. But if I need to do rote memorisation (looking at you, biochemistry!)by head breaks completely
It always bothered me in elementary school when the kids wouldn't use inflection with their reading. We were all just learning so they were just trying to read the words, I'm sure, but my brain was always screaming, " That person is excited. They should read it excitedly! Why is everyone so flat?" I just thought that I was a fast learner. I had no idea it was autism/adhd.
I'm not officially diagnosed with anything but have a sibling and possibly a parent who are both high-functioning autistic, and while I'm different from them in ways that make me pretty clearly not so classically autistic, this channel is making me realize more than I already did that I have quite a lot of autism-associated traits, which I guess does track genetically.
Definitely have some hyperlexia (children's chapter books by age 4, Harry Potter by 7, Lord of the Rings by 11) and had echolalia as part of Tourette's symptoms that have gotten much milder with age. Plus some mild ADD and OCD associated traits, chronic mild-to-moderate depression, and as I recently learned from another of your videos definitely some mild PDA associated traits.
So while I'm definitely not conventionally autistic in things like reading body language and subtle social cues (if anything I'm better than average at that), tolerating noisy and hyperstimulating environments, shutdowns and meltdowns, etc. it's pretty cool to become more aware of the autism-adjacent ND traits I have and how those have affected my life.
This is so helpful thank you.
I can read fast , I don’t comprehend it either. I definitely have some kind of dyslexia because the paragraphs move when I read do I have to use a book mark to keep my place on the page im reading so I feel like that’s different from hyperlexia but I am autistic but this was very good for me to learn about this
yesss this is so on point
Is it possible that the gestalt way of thinking helped me memorise rythm verses in poems much faster than the other kids? I don't know, it might have something to do with my memory, but instead of learning a poem beforehand, I could listen to few kids chanting it and memorise it and retell it, then most likely forget it. Because I wasn't quite trying to learn the poem as a piece of lore or storytelling, but more of a geometric structure of words that have rythm and make sense as a whole, rather than the details? I am not sure...
I like your blend of neurons. Wish you all good things.
I'm getting distracted by the room's decoration in the background 😂❤
Leaving a comment for the algorithm
Thank you so much for this. Do you have any suggestions to increase comprehension? My daughter is struggling with this in school. Great reader, struggling with the comprehension.
Most of your particularities are the genetic expression of your genes
DNA is the constituent of genes.
Much depends on our expressed genetic inheritance, but there is also an original renewal system (the novo).
On the quantum spectrum we find many things in common like hypersensitivity, high potential intelligence, autism.
The only auditory thing I can remember well is music lyrics. It's like I visualize the lyrics in my mind as I hear them if that makes sense.
I'm not sure what type of learner I am. I just know that I always struggled in school because of the stress and the need of having to learn stuff I am not interested in. Naturally I am an curious person and like to learn new things, but not while I was at school. It is also interesting that my favorite subjects were language when I was very late at learning to speak and even if I still speak I do not speak a lot. English is my second language and I'm kind of better at writing English than speaking. Math was and is the subject I hate the most. I can't understand it whatsoever and it takes me slowmotion to learn. I think I have to understand the information to be able to learn it.
I like the new background paint and lights.
You're a gestalt learner, but are you a gestalt teacher? You gave a big truck example, so I think yes. Mind you did have an explanation building up to that, but I still think yes.
First time hearing about any of this and it's hitting home. Thank you for all you do. I am 40+ person who just learned she is likely autistic and you've been a great help. Anyway, I can't help but wonder if the reason I am so good at communicating with chatGPT (seems others struggle with it at my job) is because AI thinks in chunks of data, too??! Mind blown!??! Nerding out big time! lol Mkay, gonna go watch the rest of your video now.
I know a lot of people who are not accepting or accommodating of autism that seem very autistic imo, usually older folks who probably struggled with their autism but never were aware or offered accommodations for it
when you’re ok with using memoization to read it becomes easier, I refuse to use the quick memorisation feature in my brain when the ting doesn’t make inherent sense.
When I was 7 years old I really thought that if I told someone how to make words more logical that if the teacher agreed that they could get it changed some how, or just agree to let me write it that way.
But in reality its easier to approach change “from the top” “don’t explain it to the employee, explain it to the CEO”
Hyperlexia✋🏻 I didn’t know it had a name, just that I could do it, when my peers couldn’t. At a young age, I found that I had to re-read chapters, in order to process the material. I also found that I didn’t enjoy fiction, but loved historical literature. It was a “lies versus truth” thing. (I’m not sure about the Gesalt thinker concept. I don’t really understand it)
I always had problems with language, b
seeing language as a puzzle that can fit in many ways, leading to cognitive dissonance, undermining any form of hyperlexia that I would feel but not be able to know
I think in geometry when I talk
I have about 2-4 pages of information I want to say when I feel I want to say something. And I would speak at once those pages, while forgetting what I just said
This tho it’s like lightbulb lmao I think it’s always kinda got me just because once I see the words then I can easily point to it but yet if I didn’t have your help like guidance (almost as if I need someone to help me think thru my thoughts there in order to come up with a single line or sentence/thought) almost as if I wouldn’t have been able to answer that all by myself lol it’s almost like saying rather then people ask me open ended questions they give me choice and I’ll give them the closest one (unless it’s one of those times I know EXACTLY what I wanna say// which doesn’t mean I will do it lol because ofc a lot of times I mess that up in the moment too like I’ll reflect back on it later and just be like why did I say that because it was a more negative word sounded worse than I had wanted/ intended) I don’t know it’s all just weird bodies are weird lol
Have you ever thought of making a video on ocpd?
My son is a gestalt learner, but is dyslexic.
Omg yes the “advanced reader” thing but SUCKS AT READING COMP?
Also yes gestalt checks out for me too
Absolutely crack me up!!!
Very smart autism , would make a good mother . Don’t question it , I didn’t have a good mother and had to learn to be a better person . I had a good step mother . I ended up a narc , and a healthy one , covert , overt , genetically including brains . This reminded me . :)
this... makes a lot of sense to me
I mess up on individual words in songs. I put in synonyms. I also mess up on chunks.
Wow kinda interesting how in some ways autistic people are so similar and in some ways where so different. By contrast to you in dyslexic. I didn't learn to read till I was about 8 or 9 and it took a lot of help to get me there. Even still I read much slower than your average person. That said when I was reading my comprehension was really good. My teachers would say that I have no idea how they managed to understand so much given how many mistakes they made but as long as it gets in there somehow who cares. Also verbally I was very strong too. I had a very large vocabulary even from a young age, and would regularly get asked "how do you know that word?" Even now I'm far better at processing information verbally. I love listening to audiobooks, and will regularly listen at 2x the speed or more. Everyone else tells me they have no idea what anyone is saying, bit I'm so use to it now I don't even notice that it's faster than normal.
Has anyone experienced tickertaping? Where you see “subtitles” in your head during conversation? When I was in elementary school, my brain would do it automatically and cause me a significant amount of stress. Now as an adult I guess I can sort of “turn it off” or direction elsewhere, but it has never went away. Would this be a form of echolalia??
I was the fastest to learn to read in elementary school and in college I struggle because it seems to take me twice as long to read stuff. Anyone else? Any idea why?
bruh, SAME!! I wanna know too 🤕 such a pain in the butt being a kinda dumb genius
I didn't know what these were or that they were autistic traits. I was reading at a post high school level in 3rd grade. I also never even realized that a lot of the "annoying" things I did as a kid were considered echolalia. I was always told "you watch too much TV" because I could quote entire commercials. I would always reply with "No I dont! (This was true, I always had my head in a damn book) I've only seen this once!" I couldn't comprehend how people couldn't remember commercials and songs after the first listen like I could.
I think probably the most annoying thing I did was I could say what someone else was saying as they were saying it (albeit with a very slight delay) and I was able to guess with like 95% accuracy what they were going to say based on the sound of the first quarter of the first syllable. I pissed a lot of people off doing that, but hey, at least my peers thought I could read minds 😂
Wow you think you have EDS too? I hear it soooooo much of people who are autostic that also have eds.. me too
Are there any resources on gestalt thinking? I find I can only find info on it in relationship to language learning.
Not intending to sound rude here, this topic is interesting to learn.... but if hyperlexia and gestalt thinking are associated with autism, are they also at work in those on the spectrum who are nonverbal?
And are the broad-picture thinking and rapid pattern-finding also extend outside language, like numbers and general math?
Relate to this a lot
is hyperlexia like reading your thoughts. that's what i do. anytime i hear words i have to picture them and analyze them in my mind. makes it hard to answer questions though cuz either i literally pause awkwardly to go back and read and analyze the question or i purposely skip the question to skip the awkward pause and blurt out the first thing in my head. which is weird because i feel like i have to stand by that blurted out response after. lol
Gestalt - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Wait... not everyone thinks this way? Oh.
Hey paige. Just a tip. To get better at recovering from a singing mistake, practice lip synching it first.
I'm trying to learn another language and struggling because there are no apps for gestalt learning in Spanish
its weird hearing someone else describe the way you think. glad im not the only one, tho
Does it make it easier for you to remember quotes?
Fellow late diagnosed ND hyperlexics in the comments, come say hellooooo! 👋😆
Good video
"when I read the audio book..." - what exactly does that mean??
You are so beautiful! I'd rate you a 9.5. Even your rambling at high speed is cute.
Dame i got the short end of the stick of being autistic. I learn how to draw my words.. thats it. I cant speak, read, listen, and understand words. I was a language hater growing up. There was no cear rule i could lanch on that can help me learn. Now im older i learn its not just words. I struggle with all the ways to communication. Body language, basic point and look sign language, etc. If it wasnt for my mother to read anime subtitles out loud for an entire 21 episode series. I would be worse then i am. Anime will always save the day.
But math i love it the strick rules that cant be broken. Patterns, formula all fun and easy to learn. I enjoy math but reading no nononono i hate that stuff.
I would definitely buy this shirt where can I find it
Paige ily but why do you pronounce 'gestalt' like that 😭
If you make the shirt I’ll buy it
When people try to separate out my different diagnosis when treating me or being my friend that is infuriating to me
I am also hyperlic😊
Jestalt?! Es ist als GESTALT ausgesprochen!
I assume you're not german.
alter, du hattest eine aufgabe, trotzdem hast du versagt... mieses deutsch, sorry xD
@@pixelmotte lol yeah, I hope so ^^
@@kalyasaify Aber ich habe studiert seit dreizehn Jahre. :(