Reading comprehension in hyperlexic with Asperger syndrome

• Grant number: 11/12536-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Jacy Perissinoto
• Grantee: Michelle Miranda Pereira
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome have a qualitative deficit in social interaction, and this interaction in where meanings are constructed. These meanings are involved in oral and written communication, which suggests that these individuals may have difficulty in understanding and making inferences, in reading, for example. Hyperlexia is the ability to decode, which emerges early, prior to formal education, coupled with an inability to understand the reading. The reading process requires visual recognition and decoding single words, beyond comprehension and attention capacity, memory, intelligence and general knowledge. Objective: to assess the reading comprehension in hyperlexia individuals with Asperger Syndrome and to correlate it with age, schooling and IQ. Method: Data will be collected from 16 male subjects with a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, and Hyperlexia. Reading comprehension will be analyzed and its possible relation to age, education and intellectual level. Will be used to analyze the retelling of the text "O urubu e as pombas," and the criteria for analysis of reading comprehension proposed by Moraes et al (2001), and the intellectual level of each subject measured by the Weschler scale.