Hyperlexia is a syndrome characterized by a child's precocious ability to read, combined with difficulty in understanding and using verbal language, and problems with social interactions. It was initially identified by Norman E. Silberberg and Margaret C. Silberberg (1967), who defined it as the precocious ability to read words without prior training in learning to read typically before the age of 5. They indicated that children with hyperlexia have a significantly higher word-decoding ability than their reading comprehension levels.