So Hyperlexia is a thing, where reading comes easily to a child, sometimes to the point of disrupting their other communication methods. It also overlaps a lot with autism.
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Was hyperlexic and books were my escape from a miserable reality. I don’t seem to have that attention span or escapist drive anymore? Anyways they also thought I was broken but I was just smarter than them. 🤷🏼♀️
In related news, my 6th grade teacher suspected I was illiterate due to my difficulty turning in assignments. My parents told her they didn't agree. I was actually reading redwall novels under the table and just had adhd.
Last Friday I read a 399 page novel in like five hours. I have to construct Systems and Tools to interact with people socially. The conclusions draw themselves.
She tried to call on me to answer questions to get me to stop reading, but I'd look up, answer correctly, and then go back to reading. She had to take me aside after class to be like "listen it's good you read novels for fun but can you please not do it during class"
I was reading 500 page novels in one day hyperfixation sessions for a lot of my childhood. I learned that "reading a 500 page book in less than two weeks is actually Quite Unusual" way later in life. I assumed, like, Two weeks was a normal pace for people.
So 500 pages in 2-3 days is abnormal? I just realized recently I can easily do 300+ in a day if I like it enough. I know pretty much everything is a spectrum but I only know my own experience so no clue what "normal" is 😅
So the average reading rate according to a cursory search is around 200 words per minute. A 60k novel (240-250 pages, depending on font and lettering) would therefore divide down to like 5 hours of novel time.
Most people dont spend that time all at once, I think
So i ended up thinking "the 2-3 week library rental period is how long it takes people to read through a big book" as a metric but I'm still not sure if that's just an assumption on my part.
Part of it is actually Getting to the action of reading, which skews things.
I was reading at age 3… reading out of the Bible to my great grandmother at 5… chewing through whole novels in less than a day… ☠️ didn’t know I was autistic until I was 27.
Very true. I had the Childcraft encyclopedia from my birth through elementary school. Apparently through sesame street from age 2 on, I was reading them at age 3. Finished age 5. Poor pronunciation but knew them.
I remember thinking I was somehow deficient because it took me almost a month to finish Robinson Crusoe. I was 8.
Of course, growing up being raised entirely by women and living in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, I'd also read way too many romance novels before hitting puberty.
Who invented writing? You may bet on it being an thortistic, a lover of stories, a storyteller who spelt out symbols or images in the air or on sand or on rock. We are thortistic; we are proud.
Would be nice to be able to turn it off sometimes. I don't need to read the entire grocery store aisle, every billboard ad. Also there's the whole "knowing too much" thing. But a net positive.
At one point as a kid I was told I could take out up to 10 books at a time from the library for two weeks. I took out, and read, 10 books a week. Happy days. 😊
Its a hyperfixation in a story or setting, and the barrier between "these are words" and "this is the idea the words are trying to convey" is so low to feel nonexistent. I wish I could convey it like. Telepathically.
It's also a great way to practice visualizing things too, for art reasons
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Most people dont spend that time all at once, I think
Part of it is actually Getting to the action of reading, which skews things.
Well I guess that explains a whole fucking lot.
So, yeah. It probably applies.
Of course, growing up being raised entirely by women and living in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, I'd also read way too many romance novels before hitting puberty.
As someone who hates reading due to ADHD reasons, it would be nice to know how a good read feels.
It's also a great way to practice visualizing things too, for art reasons