A Christmas Recitation

Length: 1:16

From the gospel according to Luke, by way of Schulz and Melendez.

Story Time #15: A New Hope

Length: 0:42

In which the boy helps a friend get up to speed.

Flashless? (Click here.)

Story Time #14: Owl Moon

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Length: 7:55

In casual conversation it is often difficult to explain life with a hyperlexic boy.

My wife's brilliant new blog has begun to open the eyes of more people to some of the particulars of our family's life together. And I have more than a hundred individual video posts that fill in even more detail.

But I've generally edited my "Story Time" series pretty tightly, to capture just the highlights of the boy's recitations. This time I'm inviting you to experience this family pastime in near-real time.

We tell people that he memorizes and recites stories, but those who haven't had (or taken) the time to really listen to him may not understand that this is not merely passive brain activity. Storytelling for him is PLAY.

The story, in this case, is one of the most beautifully written and illustrated picture books in our collection, OWL MOON, the 1988 Caldecott Medal winner by Jane Yolen. The boy knows it from a Scholastic video adaptation, and from the hardcover book. The audio from the DVD--read by the author--is also available as a download from iTunes.

It's the story told in the voice of a young girl walking in the snowy woods, the first time she's been allowed to accompany her father on a late night search for owls. The book makes for excellent bedtime reading, and makes an outstanding gift for fathers of young children (especially girls).

The boy and I have taken this walk many times after dark. On one beautiful evening back in August 2007, I brought my camera along.

Story Time #13: Time of Wonder

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Length: 1:24

From late March, when the boy was beginning to feed us lines. Tricky, as he was still working on his own diction (for example, here where he can't quite say "begins"), but remaining insistent that we get it right.

Story Time #12: The Mitten

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Length: 0:53

From the morning of his third birthday back in January, upon receiving the full-size version of a book he already owned in boardbook form.

Story Time #11: Apt. 3

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Length: 0:17

A quick driveby.

Story Time #4.5: Big Time Olie

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Length: 1:04

Here again in August 2006. The boy's diction is limited, but definitely expressive, as he reads to his grandparents two thousand miles away.

Story Time #3.5: Oh, The Thinks You Can Think

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Length: 1:01

A reading moment in the middle of the kitchen floor. From back in July of 2006, when his diction was a lot less clear.

The Gingerbread Man II (Mirror VIII)

Flashless? Click to view.)

Length: 2:03

For a few of you, this may seem excessive. (In the comments for the last video like this I posted, my brother made a wisecrack about New German Cinema.) Believe me, I watched this multiple times, looking for ways to cut it down.

In the end I decided to go with the cumulative effect of the boy checking to see if the book that the boy in the mirror is holding is, in fact, the same one that he is holding himself.

One. page. at a time.

Story Time #10: Hyperlexia

[VIDEO REDACTED]

I hadn't originally intended to do seven videos about the boy this week. But on day two, Josh left a comment asking me to explain where such a little guy was going on a school bus. This video attempts to answer that question. But for those of you (like Josh) who've only ever met the boy through this videoblog, this may leave you with more questions than answers.*

I knew it was going to take me all week to put together this one, so I filled the remainder of the days with unpublished videos from the past. I think it does create a bit of an arc to the week, and it's perhaps fitting that with this video I cross over the 100 video milestone.

Length: 4:16

Those of you following a link about hyperlexia can click in the right column on the video category "hyperlexia" to see more videos of the boy reading/reciting.



That'll just about do it for Videoblogging Week 2007.

---

*In the video I ran down a list of common behaviors and other signifiers of hyperlexia in young children, featuring clips from earlier videos. I also shared the boy’s autism diagnosis from our school district. As I (and the boy) have grown in the years since, I'm not entirely comfortable with how I framed the situation in the moment. If I update the edit I'll relink it here.

Story Time #9: In the Night Kitchen

Another bathtime recitation, this one from the Maurice Sendak classic.

Length: 1:26

Flashless? (Click to view.)



This is day three of Videoblogging Week.

Story Time #8: Trashy Town

Sometimes when reading a story, it's difficult to stand still.

A super cute book we discovered via one of the boy's many Scholastic DVDs.

Length: 0:53

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Story Time #7: Dr. Seuss' ABC

Last week this was the answer to the question: "What's your favorite book?"

Length: 1:10

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Story Time #6: Chrysanthemum

This continues a run of "Story Time" episodes you'll see in the coming weeks, as the boy's been on a bit of an oral interpretation tear of late.

Here the Master Thespian "reads" from Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes. The Scholastic video adaptation features a brilliant voice performance by Meryl Streep, but here the boy riffs on his mother's vocal inflections. I make no money if you buy the book or DVD from Amazon.

The fact that his back is turned (and that a conversation is going on in the background) reinforces our sense that he is performing this entirely for his own enjoyment.

Length: 1:18

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Story Time #5: Oh Say Can You Say?

The boy's diction has taken a giant leap forward, as evidenced by his handling of this tongue twister from Dr. Seuss.

Length: 1:00

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Story Time #4: Dreams

A recitation in motion.

From "Dreams" by Ezra Jack Keats.

Length: 0:41

Flashless? (Click to view.)

Story Time #3: How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?

Buy the book. Or the DVD.

Alma Gloeckler retired from the classroom after teaching my brother's first grade class, but she stayed on at the school as a one-to-one reading instructor. I was fortunate enough to spend time each week in Miss Gloeckler's supply closet of a room, but the environs never mattered to me so much as the access to new and interesting books.

My brother recently shared some reminiscences of Alma on the occasion of her 100th birthday. One reflection stood out for me as something I'd not been wholly conscious of.

When she read to us...she announced the author and illustrator with a reverence that we began to hold these professions in higher esteem than any other we'd previously considered.

As you'll see here, the boy's auditory recollection indicates we've been doing the same for him.

Moreover, my respect for authors, of children's literature in particular, led me to police myself a bit on this one along the intellectual property borderline.

With luck it won't diminish what is quite possibly the cutest footage I have ever captured of the boy. Although if you're an English reader you may need to go back and watch it a second time.

Length: 2:28

Flashless? (Click to view)

Story Time #2: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

At two years and one week old, the boy is perhaps* David Foster Wallace's youngest fan.

Length: 3:27

(Click here.)

*An assertion made without knowing whether DFW has himself a small niece/nephew/cousin or other small child in sufficient interrelational proximity to hold such a title, and by dint of actually knowing him a fan not of his work but of the man himself. Of course watching the video it will become clear to most viewers that the boy is arguably less so much a fan of DFW than of the work of the employee or contractor of Little, Brown responsible for the hardcover book design.

Run

When we bought the house he wasn't walking, but I imagined one day he'd enjoy running around the loop of hallway that connects the kitchen to the rest of the house.

Little did I know.

Length: 3:11

Flashless? (Click here.)

[P.S. You can already hear his near-mastery of the alphabet here at age 22 months.]

Too Early

The boy's awake. We're... less so much.

Length: 3:45

Flashless? (Click to view)