Customer Reviews

Late-Talking Children

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I purchased both this book and Thomas Sowell's newer The Einstein Syndrome, only to find that they were basically the same book. The difference is that The Einstein Syndrome is based on a larger sample of children and is done more scientifically. I strongly recommend that you do not buy this book and get The Einstein Syndrome instead. All that you will miss is a few anecdotes; the basic information is presented much more strongly in the second book.

Everyone I know either knows someone who talked late, or was him/herself a late talker, having no other ailments except late talking. I'm surprised someone didn't address this issue sooner. I would give this book four stars for the fact alone that it finally breeched the subject.

My three-year-old does not as yet talk, and this brought me a great deal of concern. As I read this book, I wrote down every similarity between Thomas Sowell's case studies and my own child. It gave me a much more well-defined outline of what my child is going through, being extremely intelligent and developmentally the same as her peers, but having no speech.

This book is not meant to diagnose. It's not even meant to stand as a general rule. What it does is create a basis of reference for parents of children who are clearly not developmentally challenged, but haven't talked yet. I think Mr. Sowell was quite clear in that his research was not concise science, and anyone who read it as such was only hoping to fool him/herself into having greater hope than there is.

Read this book with a grain of salt... though it's a study on late-talking children, it is the first of its kind, and the first attempt to encourage further research. It's a terrific resource, so long as the reader is not blind to a child's actual behavioral symptoms. Let the reader come to this book with his/her child's diagnosis based in reality, and it may prove a very useful tool to understanding the late-talking child.

Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite conservative authors. He is also the father of a late talking child who was misdiagnosed with autism or other problems, when in fact there was really nothing wrong with him (other than he talked late). After writing a few columns about his son, he started to get contacted by many other people with the same situation. These contacts turned in an informal group - the members of which he writes about here. There is really not too much in this book for people who do not have family that is late-talking, but for us it was very enlightening (our son Max was late-talking). The basic conclusion of this book is that there is some unnamed, unstudied disorder which seems to make children who are very very left brained talk late. These same kids seem to excel at math, logic and computers. It is possible that the late talking is just a function of the analytical part of the brain talking all the new cells for a while and "robbing" the speech center. This is not the case will all children who talk late, just thost who are perfectly normal in every other way (can understand and perform other functions normally or at an accelerated rate).

If it were possible, we would give this book ten stars. We read this book after seeing an excerpt from Reader's Digest. At that time, our five year old had been in pre-school for two years because of his late talking and delay in social interaction. Just before he was to go to kindergarten, we were bowled over with a "determination" of autism by the school district. We (pediatric nurse and lawyer) knew this was incorrect, and pointed to this book as proof, as our son matched many of the patterns in the book. With this as a guideline, we contacted the current crusader for late-talkers, Dr. Camarata from Nashville (Vanderbilt Univ.), who works with Dr. Sowell. A year later, our son has made progress of up to three years in some categories due to the proper interventions and no longer shows any hint of autistic tendencies, nor is he on the autism "spectrum" (the new example of fitting square pegs in round holes). His social interaction is now age appropriate. This book, contrary to some reviews, does NOT give false hope, but encourages parents whose child does not fit a majority of "autism" characteristics to investigate further. Thank God for Drs. Sowell and Camarata -- keep up the good work!

The book Late Talking Children is an invaluable resource for many parents. The author's extensive research, and experience with his own child, are just a couple of reasons readers of this book can see his caring and dedication to the subject of late talkers. I'd never seen a book dedicated solely to this mystery of the late talking population. Many parents I have spoken with since I'd read this book felt as if they were "all alone" before they found this book, and now can see there are many others that are going through the same things that they are. Dr. Sowell also makes it very clear that although not all late talkers are autistic, that some definately are and encourages every parent to seek many REPUTABLE professionals to get an accurate diagnosis. There are many different approaches a parent can take to help their child, and it is so important not to take the inappropriate path...and I believe this level-headed no nonsense book could help any parent of a late talker find their correct path.

It made me feel a whole lot better that there are other parents out there experiencing the same problems and feelings that my husband and I are having. We are the parents of a bright three-year-old, who is speaking on a 1 1/2 year old level. He has a vocabulary of about thirty words right now, and he uses them correctly and in context. However, he is far behind his age group. My son and our families had many similarities to the children in Mr. Sowell's books, "Late-Talking Children" and "The Einstein Syndrome". However, I don't agree 100% with everything Mr. Sowell wrote, and I would never use one man's opinion as gospel. Use this book as advice to be listened to and judged by an informed mind and a parent's heart. Research, read, talk to professionals, but also listen to your gut where it concerns your child. Mr. Sowell makes a good argument for that.

When a child is late to speak, the big red 'A' of autism is quickly branded on the child's forehead. Autism has no cure. You can't outgrow autism, yet mysteriously many children who don't speak are branded as autistic, yet experience a miraculous recovery.

This book started from an off-hand comment made by economist Thomas Sowell, in his regular column about his own son. He made a comment about his child doing quite well in upper education in a highly technical, math intensive field, after being branded as an imbecile as a child, for speech delays. Mail poured in from all over the country, most letters saying, "That's my boy!". This inspired Mr. Sowell to start researching this odd phenomenon. It seemed there was little data on late speech in children of normal or higher intelligence.

This first book is mostly anecdotal evidence, but as it so accurately described my husband, his father, and our children, I knew that we were on the right track. As a mother of 3 late speakers that fit the profile described in this book, I am thrilled to see that this book sparked some debate, and some research in the area of non autistic late speakers.

In the description of this book are the words, "hardly definitive, but should ease the minds of worried parents." This concerned me deeply, and I decided to read the above book. As the mother of a child diagnosed with autism before the age of two, I am deeply grateful that my physicians took my concerns about late language seriously. Autism is a spectrum disorder. This means that there is a great deal of variability in the symptoms, the severity, and the level of functional disability. My husband was language delayed as a child, and although he "turned out normal," he struggled with social situations for years before achieving "normal functioning." Would an early diagnosis have helped him? I would guess that it would have helped his parents to handle his difficulties as a functional deficit, rather than as weird behavior or naughtiness that was often punished or ridiculed. My son's early diagnosis of autism was a lifesaver. He was more severely afflicted than my husband, and had we listened to the many reassurances regarding Einstein's late speech, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have endured a severe, lifelong disability. However, before he turned two we were able to obtain and implement intensive educational services that I know would not have been as effective, had we waited. At four, he has achieved a level of functioning that is remarkable, especially considering how delayed he had been. In addition, we have researched the disorder in depth, and discovered that there is an umbrella of disorders besides autism that have long been considered to be on the "autistic spectrum," such as OCD, Tourettes, and some forms of schizophrenia and ADHD. Oddly enough, scientists are finding similar urinary peptides in patients with each of these disorders. This means that they may all actually be manifestations of the same biochemical disease process. The most common lamentation I have heard from other parents at support meetings is that their child's language delays were dismissed by well-meaning friends and physicians, and the late diagnosis that resulted meant months or years of lost time in which the child could have received treatment. By the way, Einstein had a great deal of social difficulties, and was considered by many to have had autism. In its most subtle form, autism is a gift of higher intellect, but in a severe form can be a terrible disability. In many cases, it is the parents' persistence, and the level of early intervention that makes the difference between the two. Language delays WITHOUT social abnormalities are usually outgrown, but still might benefit from early speech therapy. But especially if there are concerns about abnormal eye contact, social differences, lack of receptive language or pretend play, then there is no harm in calling one's county's Early Intervention program and asking for a free speech evaluation. An early diagnosis makes a huge difference in the lifetime outcome of a child with autism. Yes, this is an interesting idea for a book, but I fear that it misleads parents with a false sense of security.

Thomas Sowell has done researchers a service in drawing attention to the group of children in whom delayed speech is associated with later achievements, often in maths, music or memory.

However, the gaps in his knowledge of the field mean that the book is potentially misleading in certain respects. He points out the obvious fact that these children do not fit the picture of "classical autism" and proceeds on this basis to paint a picture of scheming schools and "so-called experts" out to misdiagnose and "label" children as autistic in order to get extra funds (what funds?).

But he seems never to have heard of the autistic spectrum (almost all of his references to texts on autism date from the 70s, and Asperger's syndrome and hyperlexia, for example, are never mentioned), or to be aware that many of the traits he describes (skill with puzzles, dismantling objects, eidetic memory, advanced reading intense absorption, and so on) are often also autistic traits. Although he admits grudgingly at one point that "autistic children are in some ways more extreme examples of the set of abilities and disabilities found in our group", it never occurs to him that the group might benefit rather than suffer from being considered in relation to the top end of the autistic spectrum, even if they do not fit any available diagnostic category neatly.

Characteristically, such children remain "different" and eccentric even when they have begun talking. This difference can ultimately be as much an intellectual advantage as a disadvantage (As researchers from Hans Asperger onwards have pointed out), but to ignore it and pretend that "everything is fine now he's started talking" is to take a serious risk. It is disturbing to read the number of parents Sowell quotes who mention in passing that their child does seem to have some problems with social interaction, but insist that this is entirely due to the time they missed owing to delayed speech. Some such children do succeed and flourish in school and adult life without a diagnosis or any specialist support and understanding; many do not.

I suppose I have a personal interest here: although I spoke early (if very bizarrely), I too was considered by some of my teachers to be "like an autistic child". But since I spoke, it was assumed that I couldn't be autistic, and all my oddities and problems were attributed to my laziness, rudeness, stubbornness and "just not trying". It wasn't until I was 20 (by which time I was clinically depressed after years of trying very hard and failing very hard to be like everyone else) that I was finally diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome, another condition on the autistic spectrum. Finally being able to understand how I function has been a huge relief, and has enabled me to make full use of my particular, quirky strengths.

If this book raises awareness that many children with highly idiosyncratic developmental patterns can become successful and flourishing adults, it will have done a great service; if it causes parents to reject any diagnosis or specialist understanding as a "label" and avoid speech therapy and other resources that may help, it will have done them and their children a great disservice.

This book was a godsend for me. After my 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with severe verbal apraxia but the intellect of a 6 year old, I went searching for information and help. Speech therapists, other books, web sites all put a dismal outlook on her future. BUT,I knew in my heart that things were not as bad as they seemed. I knew my child and was struggling to make sense of this. I ordered both of the authors books on speech delay and went right to work. My daughter and the study group in the book were exactly the same. This book opened windows of hope and new thinking for us. Not all doctors and "authorities" are right. Trust your gut instinct do what you think is right for your child. I did with the help and guidance of this book. Thank You Thomas Sowell.