Late-Talking Children

by Thomas Sowell

The painful and baffling mystery as to why some obviously bright children do not begin talking until long after the ”normal” time is explored in this book through personal experiences and the findings of scientific research. The author's own experiences as the father of such a child led to the formation of a goup of more than fifty sets of parents of similar children. The anguish and frustration of these prents as they try to cope with children who do not talk and institutions that do not understand them is a remarkable and moving human story. Fortunately, some of these children turn out to have not only normal intelligence but even outstanding abilities, especially in highly analytical fields such as mathematics and computers. These fascinating stories of late-talking children and the remarkable families from which they come are followed by explorations of scientific research that throw light on unusual development patterns.

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting, Psychology, Philosophy, Science

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he became a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative. He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.
Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and grew up in Harlem, New York City. Due to poverty and difficulties at home, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and worked various odd jobs, eventually serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Afterward, he took night classes at Howard University and then attended Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1958. He earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia University the next year and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. In his academic career, he held professorships at Cornell University, Brandeis University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked at think tanks including the Urban Institute. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy.
Sowell was an important figure to the conservative movement during the Reagan era, influencing fellow economist Walter E. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration, and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, but declined both times.
Sowell is the author of more than 45 books (including revised and new editions) on a variety of subjects including politics, economics, education and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers. His views are described as conservative, especially on social issues; libertarian, especially on economics; or libertarian-conservative. He has said he may be best labeled as a libertarian, though he disagrees with the "libertarian movement" on some issues, such as national defense.

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what it claims to be. It is a series of stories about bright children who are late talkers. It doesn't have any answers. What it does give a parent with a bright but late talking child is the knowledge that they are not alone. My son didn't start talking until after his 3rd birthday but he is cognitively advanced for his age. It is nice to know that there are other children like him. This book also made me very grateful that we have avoided the need for a diagnosis or a label. It is a good read if you have a late talker, especially if there are no other major developmental issues.

[Inder · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not necessarily a bad book, but it was not what I was looking for. This is a book about very high IQ children who talk late but exhibit other signs of high intelligence. I would suspect that some of these children are at the very high functioning end of the ASD spectrum, myself, but the author does not address that (or disagrees). In any event, this is not a book describing general causes for speech delays, which is what I was looking for. One thing that gives me pause is that I wonder if this book will provide essentially false hopes to parents of late-talking children. Some children fit this high-IQ-late-talking profile, surely, but most do not. Telling parents that their late-talking child is just brilliant and not to worry ... well, it doesn't sit right with me. Most late-talking children have normal intelligence; some may have developmental problems that should be addressed sooner rather than later!! When in doubt, seek out expert advice, don't let your love for your child blind you to possible issues.

[Dree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book--acknowledging what so many doctors refuse to admit. Some kids talk late. They are not disabled, they do not need tons of therapies (which should go to the kids that really need them!), and they tend to have a lot of things in common. My late-talker is now 11. Yes, he's good at math. (And loves drawing, movies, hanging out with friends, throwing balls with dad, baking brownies, tae kwon do, and taking things apart to figure out how they work.)

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it became obvious that my son wasn't talking as much as many other children his age, I naturally became curious and a little nervous. Fortunately for me, one of my favorite academic writers happened to also have a late-talking child and wrote two books about it. This book's focus is on late-talking children who are otherwise bright. At the time of it's writing (not sure if it's still the case today) most late-talking children, regardless of whether they were otherwise bright or not, were bundled up statistically with late-talkers + other issues, like autism, making research on non-autistic late-talkers relatively scarce. Sowell's goal with this book is to let parents of bright late-talking children know they're not alone, and to offer up the limited anecdotal research that he conducted as a result of writing a newspaper column about his son that got much feedback from other parents of late-talking children. The first half of the book is a series of edited letters from his readers about their experiences, firmly letting readers of the book know that they're not alone. The second half is an examination of all the correlations found in the surveys, such as frequency of the close family members of late-talking children being mathematically inclined and/or musically inclined. Sowell also offers an admittedly relatively unsupported theory that, especially with boys, other developments in the brain may be temporarily crowding out speech development.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I had seen this a few years back when I was stressing about my kid talking later than expected. It would have helped me breath easier. Very informative.

[Marty Mangold · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a parent of a bright child who comprehended what was said to him, but did not talk till past the age when speech is expected. After publishing an article on the concerns this raised, he was contact by dozens of similar parents and they formed a group for mutual discussion and support.

In a world where financing for specialists and research flows to formal diagnoses of a condition not well understood -- most of these children start talking and their parents move on to other concerns -- the main message of this book to other parents is: "You are not alone." (page 174).

He posits that "there is competition for brain cells in early childhood among the various functions performed by the brain" (page 122) and these children (mostly boys with close relatives that were engineers, musicians, and mathematicians) seemed to be borrowing from speech to develop those other skills first.

This book will find its audience -- the family members and friends of children like this -- and is a great introduction to its topic.

[Monyca Tamang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! I felt like I was reading a book about my son. So many connections made. 🤯 Must read for parents with late talking children FOR SURE!!!!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book. Very good. My 3.5-year-old son is currently undergoing tests and speech therapy for a perceived speech delay. He is most certainly an intelligent boy: can read short words, knows upper- and lowercase letters, recognizes numbers, has an amazing memory, etc. He also is social - plays with his sisters and cousins and familiar friends - while also reserved and shy. So, when the people at the school district mentioned a possible label of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), or PDD (Pervasive Development Disorder), I wasn't so sure. I had no peace - ZERO. But, I also saw why they would think that. Interestingly, our pediatrician has maintained that he believes NOTHING is wrong with my son - except perhaps a minor speech delay. He has encouraged us to get a second opinion, which we are in about 6 weeks. This book was discovered at a truly perfect time for me. I was in serious confusion and frustration and almost despair.

In reading this book, some of the children described sound almost exactly like my son. It's uncanny, and probably not just a mere coincidence. Especially when looking at the family trends. We have pilots, scientists, musicians, engineers, etc. in our family - as many of the children in this study. Again, I don't think it's just a coincidence. And, really, I've often wondered whether there's truly something wrong or if his being so smart also means he operates a bit differently. Not incorrectly - just not the same as most children. This book reminded me of my initial thoughts, and gave me some hope. In the absence of some serious confirmation, I will not allow anyone to put any autism-related labels on him. I don't think they fit. I am much, much more confident in my son and his abilities than I was before. I'm reminded of what he is, and not what he isn't. Although, ironically, I am shows what he is AND what he isn't at the same time.

We will go through with our planned evaluation, but keep an open mind. Up next for me to read is the follow-up book, The Einstein Syndrome, after which I am going to schedule a meeting with our pediatrician to discuss these with him. Anyway, I am grateful for this book and look forward to reading the next. It has been an invaluable resource!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the mother to a late talking boy, I searched for reasons and understanding for why my son didn't talk. There are a number of books, this one is mostly emperical. A good book for those looking for things that make our children different, but not a book for a child with true speech apraxia or serious issues. The only cavet I have with this book is that it does sort of give a "wait and see" attitute. Which is fine if your child is 2. It is not ok if your child is still not speaking at 3.

[Brian Wade · Rating 1 out of 5]

A better title would be, 'Extremely Intelligent Late-Talking Children Who Otherwise Grow Up To Become Talented Engineers, Mathmeticians, Academics, Musicians or World Ranking Chess Champions.'

See Inder's review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This particular book is a deeply interesting one when it comes to the issue of learning disabilities, as Sowell talks about his own son and other people (mostly boys) that he had known, as well as a variety of families in a support-group and those who answered the author's surveys and thus provide some statistical insights as to the issue of late-talking children.  Rarely does one see the effort on the part of parents to desperately avoid having their children labeled as having Persistent Developmental Disabilities or autism as clearly as one does here, as the author notes the way that at least some of those with delayed verbal communication have enough other mental abilities that it should be clear that there are wide differences between those who are often categorized as late-talking children, although he does comment that not all late-talking children have the high mental abilities in other areas that make a diagnosis of a learning disability unwise and improper.  The author also also comments at least somewhat on the way that diagnoses of learning disabilities tend to leave children behind and make it even harder to catch up than would be the case if children are allowed to develop their vocalization at their own pace.

This particular book is short, at less than 200 pages, and begins with acknowledgements to those that helped the writer.  After that the author spends the first twenty pages of the book discussing his own personal experience in how he and his ex-wife dealt with the late-talking of their son and the course it involved over several years.  After that the author talked about the children that were in a group that was designed to provide support and encouragement to late-talking kids.  The author spends some talking talking about patterns, careful to avoid the fallacy that correlation is causation, but still interested in the suite of qualities that were combined in the children that were a part of the group.  The author then looked at the patterns that could be found outside of the group from those that the author met in the course of conducting research into the phenomenon of late-talking children.  The last chapter gives some facts, thoughts, and questions and encourages others to add more research.  After this there are notes, a lengthy appendix that includes the surveys that the author used to research late-talking children, and an index.

Quite to my surprise, I found this book had a lot to say about my own childhood.  Like the children discussed here, I shared a wide variety of the same phenomena and was thankfully able to avoid being diagnosed as having a learning disability.  I was a rather quiet child until after three years of age, had delayed toilet training (although in my case there were other factors influencing that as well), and had the standard qualities of late-talking children:  a good memory, high musical ability, and aptitude in mathematics, along with being left-handed, myopic, and having allergies, as well as having a bit of a struggle with social cues and occasional tendencies to be a space cadet despite being generally empathetic and affectionate, all of which are associated with this same suite of issues.  It was quite alarming to see all of these things connected together, although it is unclear what sort of causes are behind this suite of shared qualities that are correlated together.  It is worthwhile that the author used his own experience of having a late-talking child in order to bolster the scientific understanding of it and to encourage other parents struggling with the same situation and seeking not to have their children labeled and stigmatized as disabled thereby.

[Damilola · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is phenomenal. I was introduced Sowell by the writing in his book "Black rednecks, White Liberals" and while I have not read that book, this book was a great primer for me to Sowell's work, writing style and general tone.

Sowell chronicles his experience as a parent of a late talking child, John. While John did not talk in complete sentences until he was about 4, he ended up eventually catching up on this verbal milestone and obtaining a computer science degree, working as a titan in his field. Interested in his child's development and eager to see if other families experienced this, he culled a cohort of families who did have children like John who were late in talking.

He was able to informally make hypothesis about the possible etiology of late talking children. For example, he noted that many of the children in this cohort were male children, with family members with math or music backgrounds. Also many late talking children also too were potty trained late. He draws some conclusions and offers hope and to parents.

As someone who is not a parent, a parent of a late talking child no less, I read this book to become familiar to Sowell's writing style. I also am interested in child development and figured this book would be my "in" to get familiar with Sowell on a familiar playing field. I ended up falling in love with Sowell's writing style and wording choice and his general philosophy about children. As a pretty big Charlotte Mason fan, this book affirms Mason's view of personhood for children. Children are indeed people. People are indeed different. Mason and Sowell see eye to eye in this way. It is with great pleasure that I am convinced further of these truths and have a framework for advocating for children especially advocating for the best of our children's efforts (and being present enough to notice the best of our children's efforts). That is while a child may not be the most articulate and verbose, he may have skills that are unique and defend his development.

In short, I would strongly recommend this to a parent of late talking parent as a form of encouragement.

[thea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't thank Thomas Sowell enough...

I am a worried Mother of a 32 month old son who is not talking yet but saying isolated words. When I came across Thomas Sowell's books 'Late-Talking Children' and 'The Einstein Syndrome ' I thought I would just read them even though I know myself (a late talker) and my Son are not like Einstein in anyway. I feel like these books are the best therapy I needed right now, and highly recommend them.

I was a late talker (my first conversation with my mother at over 4 and a half). I found school extremely difficult, left handed, short sighted. The only subject I excelled at in secondary school was music and would have loved to have had a career playing the flute but unfortunately had to retake all my GCSE'S at college. I actually won an award for my outstanding GCSE's and went off to gain a first in a Printed Textile degree and then an MA. Also I paint portraits and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery etc. I have always worked in Textiles and have always been the employer called on to fix computer problems.

There are computer whizzes, Engineers, mathematicians, music in my immediate family with many more talents.

These books have made me less anxious about my Son and want him to develop at his own pace. I have to say being a late talker myself, it's never bothered me through my life, only since having my Son. His older Sister was extremely fast at talking so never worried about it then.

Thank you so much Thomas Sowell.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sowell wrote this in the 90s, when understanding of the autism spectrum was less advanced than now. He was among the first to identify a pattern of late speech acquisition among children (mostly boys) who are very bright and have strengths in math and music, and who often come from highly educated families which include many engineers and musicians. The book is primarily a series of descriptions of such children, drawn from a group of parents who responded to an article Sowell wrote about his own late-talking son. Many of the kids grew up to be highly successful adults.

He was quick to point out that not all kids with language difficulties fit into this group, and called for more research. There is of course much ongoing research now, and much disagreement about which deviations from neuro-typicality are clinically relevant, which can or should be treated. Sowell's book is a valuable addition to the discourse.

[Korin: A Crone Running Amok · Rating 3 out of 5]

While many children who talk late suffer from developmental disorders or autism, there is a certain well-defined group who are developmentally normal or even quite bright, yet who may go past their fourth birthday before beginning to talk. These children are often misdiagnosed as autistic or retarded, a mistake that is doubly hard on parents who must first worry about their apparently handicapped children and then must see them lumped into special classes and therapy groups where all the other children are clearly very different

[Jen de R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only picked this up because it was by Thomas Sowell and not from any personal interest in the subject, but found it quite a pleasing blend of individual accounts, warm wisdom, and scientific info. He is obviously using the term ‘autism’ to mean something a bit different from what it means today, unsurprisingly since it was written in 1997. The book isn’t about autism, but it is mentioned in many places. Still, I found it a compassionate and interesting read.

[Diane Schindler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this was written many years ago, it was so relevant to my grandson. The groupings were spot on and I am happy to say that I believe in my case, we have an intelligent, math, music, late talker.
Thomas Sowell is one of the smartest educators I have come across and would listen/read anything he has to offer on education,

[Jessica Baumgartner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was suggested to me when my eldest son wasn't talking like his sisters did at his age. It is an invaluable resource for parents who are pressured into assuming that young boys who don't talk as soon as girls are developmentally disabled. Many of them are not. My son now talks better than most children his age. He's just a masculine boy who prefers to think and build more than he talks.

[Angelo Farina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book doesn't intend to be an exhaustive study about late talking children, and as such reaches his goal reporting a small group of late talking children development and actions parents took to try and help their early development. For parents with children in that particular condition, the book is a must because of hints and clues, experiences lived, and comparison.

[sandeep tyagi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good guide

I would recommend this book to all parents who have a late talker or parents who are confused what’s is wrong.This book gives good insight or shows clear way to understand what your child holds and is capable for…

[Mrs. M]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was informative and gave me a more concise understanding of the workings within some schools. This book would be extremely helpful to parents and educators (at least those truly interested in helping our Posterity).

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dated, but interesting.

[Myra Loy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting read. Glad I read it. But not sure I feel like I gained much more beyond that.

[Chrisanne]

Not quite what I have grown to expect from Sowell. Didn't really finish it.

[Sandra Octaviani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly a book of vignettes with some insightful research on late talking children in the last chapter. It helped reframe my perspective of my late talking toddler

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting to me because reading it was like reading about other children that are EXACTLY like my daughter. None of the kids in my circle of people has a child that is like Gwen. She is obviously intellegent and can read all the numbers and letters both upper and lower case, read script, put together 24 piece puzzles, she was even sounding out words the other day. And she isn't even three years old yet. She is very social, and doesn't display many of the hallmarks of autism, but she doesn't speak much at all. So this book was reassuring to me. It told me I am not alone.

But the book is ALL stories. No suggestions for what to do to improve your child's speech. Also, this is a very select group of late-talkers. I think the book title is a bit misleading, because there are many late talking children for which this book has no application.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me when I had a 3-year old who was not yet speaking. When you're feeling (as the parent) embarassed, or you think that your child is not "normal", you are frantically looking for the quick fix to enable your child to fit in.

What was great about this book for me is the realization that there are so many children who are outside the normal range of the bell curve in the early years, and, as the children grow, most get there...just at a different pace.

At a time when I needed hope, this book gave it to me. It also helped me bring back my sense of humor to the "issue" and I was able to be a better and more patient parent to my child who needed to progress at his own pace.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't even know this guy existed, but thanks to my parents who happenend upon this book. Apparently this is a well-known academist. Even though he is not in this particular field, his son was a late talker and he has done some rudimentary research in the are and written two books on the subject. He also knows several people who are experts in this field and one at the U of Vanderbilt has started a support group and website. Very interesting stuff!

[Annie ⚜️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much what I had hoped. Looking for some consolation in our current situation, it's just nice to know others in the same boat. Also, took a lot of stress off knowing about others. For example, the late potty training going hand in hand with the late talking was a relief. It deals with a very specific set of parameters. Other books recommended to me, like The Late Talker, just scared me more.

[Flora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strictly anecdotal, and not really an answer-questions kind of book. Also rather bare-bones. What it does basically say is if your kid seems bright enough he'll probably turn out all right.

They'd all get dxes today. But at least half would probably still turn out all right. (Some of those cases sounded like there would still be Problems)