The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late

by Thomas Sowell

Book Overview

The Einstein Syndrome is a follow-up to Late-Talking Children, which established Thomas Sowell as a leading spokesman on the subject of late-talking children. 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 046508141X
• ISBN13: 9780465081417
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Thank you for this book!

As the parent of a late talking child. I was concerned that he exhibited all of the symptoms quoted by the "experts" for a child with PDD-NOS. Little did I realize that taking him in for a free evaluation by the state would lead to School Psychologists and counselors demanding that I enroll him in their "enhanced" programs. After one psychologist accused me of being "in denial" I sought more information and found "The Einstein Syndrome". This book helped me understand the political and bureaucratic and academic machinations which are creating this bogus "Autism Epidemic" expecially in California. This book offered my wife and I real hope at a very dark time in our lives. I've waited almost 2 years to post this review. My son is now a playful, intelligent, affectionate, TALKATIVE 4 year old getting ready for kindergarten. All of the Autism/PDD "symptoms" completely disappeared on their own. And I have the luxury of returning that diagnosis to the psychologist with a big "F" written on it. Just to show there's no hard feelings, though. I plan on giving her a present, a copy of "The Einstein Syndrome".

More Evidence in the Phenomenon of Late Speakers

This is the Follow-up book to Sowell's "Late Talking Children". The first book was mostly anecdotal evidence, but this book includes far more data, from more scientific research. He worked with Dr Camarata, a speech and language pathologist from Vanderbilt university for the research of this book.Yes, as before, many people will criticize this book, as they did the first. The people who will criticize this book are either the para-professionals that stand to lose money from unnecessary therapies, or the parents of children with serious issues who read no further than the dust jacket, and don't read the book with a critical enough eye to realize whether or not their child actually fits this special sub-set of late speakers. We have a strong family history of speech delays, and math intensive careers. Both my husband and father in law fit the profile, as engineers, both late speakers. I am such a strong advocate of this book, as I am a mother of 3 late speakers who fit the profile so closely it is almost scary to see it in print. It is as if they have been watching my household. All 3 of my late speakers are now speaking, and all share the extremely advanced mechanical and spatial perception skills addressed in the profile.If your child is not speaking, and you see a spark of intelligence in his eyes READ the book, and really analyze your child. Don't just say, "Well some kids grow out of it, mine will too", take a serious look to see if your child does indeed fit the profile. If your child doesn't fit the profile, don't criticize this line of research, as this is a REAL sub-set of late speakers, even if it is not where your child is. If the child DOES fit the profile, there are a great many support groups out there for parents of these odd little guys.

Thankful this book came along when it did!

I came across this book right as I was becoming concerned about my son's lack of progress in developing expressive language even though he understood everything we said and could communicate very well non-verbally. Right away, I recognized my son in this book and it gave me hope right when I needed it the most. I worked in schools as an occupational therapist for several years prior to having my first child, and have worked extensively with speech therapists. The book does often portray school personnel in an unflattering way, but this portrait comes from many parental accounts of their bright, late talking children being misdiagnosed and the heartbreak that followed. Now that I'm a parent whose child is being evaluated rather than the evaluator myself, I can see both sides of the story. This book has been very valuable to me, as it has reassured me and encouraged me to trust my instincts about my own child. It has also helped me to focus on the many positives of my son, rather than dwelling on his slow progress in developing speech. It has meant a great deal to me to know that my son is not alone, that there are in fact many children out there who are bright children who talk late. One of them was born 30 years before my son, and she went on to write this review!

Thank God for this book!

This book explained my son to me. He is 3 years and 9 months old and just beginning to speak conversationally. Our family fits the profile so well it's almost scary._The Einstein Syndrome_ also gives practical advice and needed warnings to parents about dealing with the institutions and therapists who evaluate their children. Thomas Sowell reminds us parents that we are our children's best advocates and that our knowledge, feelings, and opinions about our children do count. Even if your child doesn't fit the profile, the book is worth the information on handling the professionals.

A remarkable phenomenom - newly researched

The Einstein Syndrome is an informative follow-up of Thomas Sowell's Late Talking Children. Since my daughter and I share all the characteristics that Thomas Sowell writes about, it is quite refreshing and supporting to read about his and Professor Stephen M. Camarata's research. Sowell is a much needed pioneer on the research of bright late-talking children that share various characteristics such as: outstanding analytical abilities, and/or musical abilities, outstanding memories, strong wills, delayed toilet training, close relatives in analytical occupations (ex. engineers) and/or musical abilities, and other interesting characteristics that he describes in his book. Sowell writes about the frustrations a parent can go through with professionals misdiagnosing, to friends and family unthoughtful comments, to schools mislabeling for their own funding purposes. Sowell gives insightful examples of late-talking children and adults who talked late. He goes on to discuss the controversy on early intervention for this particular group of children. He does suggest that a child be evaluated by two separate independent professionals, to skip the "free" school district evaluation, and at the same time be an advocate for your child. Thomas Sowell encourages research and studies on the Einstein syndrome as well as more inovative and challenging educational approaches for these children. My gratitude goes to Thomas Sowell for writing such a wonderful book and if everyone must have a label, my daughter and I will take the Einstein syndrome.