Editing Hyperlexia (section)

==Non-English studies==

In studies in [[Cantonese]] and [[Korean language|Korean]], subjects were able to read non-words in their native [[orthography]] without a delay relative to the speed with which they read real words in their native orthography. There is a delay noted with [[English orthography#Spelling irregularities|exception words]] in [[English language|English]], including the examples ''chaos'', ''unique'', and ''enough''. These studies also illustrate difficulties in understanding what it is that they are reading. The findings suggest that non-hyperlexic readers rely more heavily on word [[semantics]] in order to make inferences about word meaning.<ref name="HyperK">{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=Sung Hee|last2=Hwang|first2=Mina|title=Word and nonword processing without meaning support in Korean-speaking children with and without hyperlexia|journal=[[Reading and Writing]]|date=1 August 2014|volume=28|issue=2|pages=217–238|doi=10.1007/s11145-014-9522-3|s2cid=143655030}}<!--|access-date=12 February 2016--></ref><ref name="HyperC">{{cite journal|last1=Wong|first1=W.|last2=Weekes|first2=B.|last3=Iao|first3=L.|last4=To|first4=K.|last5=Su|first5=I.|title=Is Reading Aloud Semantically Mediated in Chinese Hyperlexia?|journal=Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences|date=October 2013|volume=94|pages=153–154|doi=10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.075|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The Cantonese study distinguish [[homograph]]s and determine the readings for rarely used characters. In this study, the subject also made errors of [[phonetic analogy]] and regularization of sound. The authors of the study suggest that the two-routes model for reading Chinese characters may be in effect for hyperlexics. The two-routes model describes understanding of Chinese characters in a purely phonetic sense and the understanding of Chinese characters in a semantic sense.<ref name="HyperC" />

The semantics deficit is also illustrated in the study of Korean hyperlexics through a priming experiment. Non-hyperlexic children read words primed with a related image faster than non-primed words while hyperlexics read them at the same pace. Lee Sunghee and Hwang Mina, the authors of the Korean study, also found that hyperlexics have fewer errors in non-word reading than non-hyperlexics. They suggest that this may be because of an imbalance in the [[phonological]], [[orthographical]], and semantic understandings of the subjects' native language and writing system, in this case, [[Hangul]]. This combination of the parts of linguistics is known as [[connectionism]], in which non-words are distinguished from words by differences in interaction between phonology, orthography, and semantics.<ref name="HyperK" />

In the Lee and Hwang study, the subjects scored lower on general language test and vocabulary tests than the average for their age groups. Literacy education in [[South Korea]] involves teaching students entire words, rather than starting with the relationship between phonemes and letters in Hangul, despite evidence that letter name knowledge is useful for learning to read words that have not been taught. The results suggest that hyperlexics are able to obtain the relations between letters (or the smallest unit of the writing system) and their phonemes without knowing the names.<ref name="HyperK" /><ref name="Klit">{{cite journal|last1=Kim|first1=Young-Suk|title=The foundation of literacy skills in Korean: the relationship between letter-name knowledge and phonological awareness and their relative contribution to literacy skills|journal=Reading and Writing|date=29 June 2008|volume=22|issue=8|pages=907–931|doi=10.1007/s11145-008-9131-0|s2cid=146180409}}</ref>

[[Reading comprehension|Comprehension]] difficulties can also be a result of hyperlexia. Semantics and comprehension both have ties to meaning. Semantics relates to the meaning of a certain word while comprehension is the understanding of a longer text. In both studies, interpretation-based and meaning-based tests proved difficult for the hyperlexic subjects. In the Weeks study, the subject was unable to identify characters based on the logographic aspect of the writing system, and in the Lee and Hwang study, priming was ineffective in decreasing reading times for hyperlexics.<ref name="HyperK" /><ref name="HyperC" /><ref name="Klit" />