Editorial Review
The Einstein Syndrome is a follow-up to Late-Talking Children, which established Thomas Sowell as a leading spokesman on the subject. 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.Since he first became involved in this issue in the mid-1990s, Sowell has joined with Stephen Camarata of Vanderbilt University, who has conducted a much broader, more rigorous study of this phenomenon than the anecdotes reported in Late-Talking Children. Sowell can now identify a particular syndrome, a cluster of common symptoms and family characteristics, that differentiates these late-talking children from others; relate this syndrome to other syndromes; speculate about its causes; and describe how children with this syndrome are likely to develop.
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Customer Reviews
Extremely Helpful 
2008-09-28
At 14 months old, and after having played with an electric toy for 2 weeks, my son figured out on his own the entire alphabet, shapes, and numbers 1-10. He was fascinated with books and taught himself to read. He was reading before turning 2, and at 2 years old, he was reading hundreds of words. Now at three, he can read thousands of words. He is amazing with puzzles, and according to his teacher, builds incredibly creative and interesting things with toys like blocks or legos. He is very loving and loves to be cuddled and kissed. While he understands everything we say, he does not want to talk much, and only talks when he wants something. There were suggestions from his preschool of autism because of his speech delay. This has brought my husband and myself a great deal of anguish.
We saw a specialist who considered him gifted and suggested that we look into the development of Eistein as a young boy. Also, she said gifted children tend to develop unevenly.
This book has really been very helpful and reassuring to us. Now, instead of being anxious about his speech, we celebrate his other gifts and seek to nurture his interests and talents. Because of the shift in our perception, our son is happier and is seems to be thriving.
A later talker with a late talking child 
2008-08-27
I bought this book with several books about autism spectrum after my son was announced to be on autism spectrum because he started talking at 2 and 7 month. I read all the books and found this book helped me most. My son's doctors saw my child as a speech-delayed child who refused to cooperate on any task. They ignored that he is in a bilingual environment, he loves reading and he picked up those 20 words in 2 months without any therapy. As a late talker myself, I know it is not right to label a child with autism just because he is late talking. I started talking at the same age as my son, and quickly picked up. By 4 I was talking no stop. My family background fits the profile perfectly. My parents are engineer and teacher. Both I and my spouse are scientists and play music instruments. My son is extremely strong will and has excellent memory. Now he is surprising me everyday with new words. He is still behind but he has an amazing learning speed, thank for his good memory.
I give this book four start, because parents with real autism child may use this book to put themselves into denial. I suggest parents buy this book also do research on autism before switching the autism label with the Einstein syndrome.
The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late 2008-08-18
This book offers interesting observations about a system that is increasingly quick (too quick) to diagnose children autism. While more is known about autism today, this use of the "autism spectrum" has obvious risks - Namely, if you make a spectrum wide enough, you can put anyone on it.
Our three year old daughter, a late talker with speech difficulties, has been diagnosed with autism - yet she exhibits a number of atypical behaviors for an autistic child. She is affectionate, funny and makes pretty good eye contact. She doesn't obsess over things either.
Several professionals have told us that she is smart - quick to solve difficult puzzles, good at following directions, and on target for motor skills.
Two psychologists have expressed doubt about the autism diagnosis after spending a lot of time with her. We now doubt that this is autism as well.
But as this book points out, when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And that is what so many doctors, psychiatrists and other professionals are doing with the autism spectrum - They toss every kid on the spectrum. If your kid has autism, accept it. But be open to other possibilities - namely that your kid is a late talker. Its hard to know what to do - even with helpful books like this one.
Interesting subject 2008-08-07
I found the subject of late talking children very interesting and intriging. I have a 21 month old grandson who has not begun to talk at all....not even Mama, DaDa, Bye Bye. He constantly babbles. He has been checked for hearing as well as an overall analysis of his motor skills, social interests, etc., and has come out with an above average rate. We are just interested in how he progresses over the next year or so to see if he has above intelligence. He enjoys working on puzzles that are for 3 or 4 year children; not always completing them, but enjoys the challenge until he gets too frustrated.
The Einstein Syndrome 
2008-07-29
The content is excellent; a valuable book devoted to a neglected subject. Unfortunately, the print quality was terrible. Even though I returned the first book that I received, the replacement was the same, numerous pages where the outer inch of printing was blurred, and for all practical purposes, unreadable. Very disappointing for a product from Amazon! Even though I advised Amazon of the nature of the problem on the first book, they didn't bother to check the replacement book.
Answers with a twist 2008-07-01
The Einstein Syndrome is a follow-up to Late-Talking Children, which established Thomas Sowell as a leading spokesman on the subject. 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.Since he first became involved in this issue in the mid-1990s, Sowell has joined with Stephen Camarata of Vanderbilt University, who has conducted a much broader, more rigorous study of this phenomenon than the anecdotes reported in Late-Talking Children. Sowell can now identify a particular syndrome, a cluster of common symptoms and family characteristics, that differentiates these late-talking children from others; relate this syndrome to other syndromes; speculate about its causes; and describe how children with this syndrome are likely to develop.
Very interesting 2008-06-29
I purchased the book because my grandson is 16 months old and doesn't talk. He does say "NO" alot. He is very bright being that he knows what you are asking him to do and he does it, but doesn't talk. It concerned me. I have spoken to may mother's who have children the same age, and many of them don't talk either. I don't think it is the norm. Maybe things have changed. I will keep reading.
Late Talking Children 2008-05-25
We have a late talking grandson and this book went a long way in helping us understand his behaviour. Recommended for parents and educators.
The Einstein Syndrome 2008-05-02
I firmly recommend this book to anyone with a child who has a speech delay or has been diagnosed with autism (although the child is very social). The book gives a very objective view of the syndrome and it's manifestations. The information did help me better cope with my own child and understand why he has such a speech delay.
Most crucial book I ever read 2008-02-14
Finding out about and reading this book made an incredible difference to our family, and if Dr. Thomas Sowell or a relative/friend of his is reading this review: thank you from the bottom of my heart. Two-and-a-half years ago, at age 2 1/2, my son was definitely going through some kind of developmental slump that included very limited speech. Our assigned speech therapist, though not empowered to diagnose here in Canada, suggested when I probed her that my son was between moderately and severely autistic. Her report, contrary to our expressed wishes, went straight to the developmental pediatrician we took our son to a month later. He confirmed by phone after the appointment that our son was definitely on the autistic spectrum and that a written report would follow in a few weeks. Having read Sowell's book earlier I held out some hope that our son was being misdiagnosed. However, his behavior was at its most erratic and disturbing at that point so for about a dozen days I caved in to despair and these indeed were the worst dozen days of my life. But something Dr. Sowell emphasized in his book kept nagging at me: namely, that diagnosing autism-spectrum disorders is the thing that speech therapists do least well. And, we had the distinct impression that our developmental pediatrician was leaning quite heavily on the speech therapists's report--which we had thought was so extreme that we tried (unsuccessfully) to block it. Despite the gloom, day by day I began to think that the apparent autistic symptoms were displaying themselves fairly infrequently and only partially. So I contacted the two clinicians at the University of Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee whom Sowell recommends for second opinions: Dr. Stephen Camarata (a Ph.D in speech therapy) and his wife Mary Camarata. They responded immediately and sympathetically (by e-mail), a cancellation a few weeks later allowed us to book an appointment, and off the whole family flew from Toronto to Nashville. The Camaratas were brilliant, and FAR better at dealing with our son in an interview situation than the Toronto people had been. They determined within 15 minutes that our son was not only NOT on the autistic spectrum, but not even close to being on it. They suggested that he might have a language disorder that might need some extra help in overcoming, but that was it. Our son subsequently did two years of pre-school at a place that specializes in A-spectrum and language-delay kids, mixed with no-issues kids as well. He did fine, with very little speech therapy, and is talking like a magpie these days. He is now in a public school junior kindergarten and doing great. I tend to think that he's just normal, though quite bright and a real character, rather than an Einstein syndrome kid. However, had it not been for Sowell's book directing us to the Camaratas, we likely would have got caught up in the whole A-spectrum disorder bureaucracy here, and worse, we would have subjected our son to an incredibly expensive and needless behavioural intervention therapy that we had even arranged to begin the very day we instead had our son re-evaluated in Nashville. Put it this way: the best decision I have ever made in my life (I'm 55) was to read Sowell's book and follow his suggestion that a re-evaluation by the Camaratas might be in order. It's been a very happy ending for our son and us, but absent 'The Einstein Syndrome' it would likely have been VERY heavy going.
