Several case histories of hyperlexic children whose abilities in word recognition are at a level significantly higher than their general level of intellectual functioning are described, and the impact of such a condition on the child is suggested as an object of research. In the sever"l cases presented, the hyperlexia re"ulted in environmental stress. The potentiality of later stress is expected to take the form of anxiety provoked by unrealistic assessment of the child's abilities and by the high-level demands placed on him by teachers and parents. Several of the children described had been referred for testing as gifted children on the basis of word recognition ability alone, and one had been accelerated to a higher grade. One boy had not been detected as dyslexic until the fourth grade when it was found that although his word recognition was at grade level, his reasoning and comprehension abilities were similar to those of a high-level, educable mentally retarded child. This condition is often not detected earlier because of the emphasis on word recognition skills in the primary grades and because of the assumption of teachers and parents that if readingskills are high, other mental functioning should also be high. References are listed. (CM)