The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late by Thomas Sowell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late
Book Review: Einstein Syndrome...Bright Children Who Talk Late
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have a child that is late with speech development, seems frustrated with communications, strong willed & defiant, prone to tantrums, good at solving puzzles, loving but sometimes aloof, concentrates on some tasks, ignores requests to perform other tasks, not the least interested in potty training, exhibiting some autistic or PDD tendancies but having exceptional memory and suprising intelligence, then you need to get this book. Don't be put off by reviews of the professionals, the book has some information that will help concerned parents bypass those professional egos and cut to the main issue, how to best understand and help your child. Book Review: Important, but incomplete
Summary: 3 Stars
As one of the "semi-professionals" Sowell references (a Floor Time therapist working in a not-for-profit Los Angeles clinic), I found Sowell's book compelling and interesting (I read it in one sitting) but incomplete. Along with Sowell, I agree that a baffiling amount of bias and incomptence can be found in a variety of schools/programs/clinics designed to treat children with special needs. I myself felt inadequately trained/prepared by my clinic before being assigned to cases. However, unlike many of the other "semi-professionals", I have a desire to learn as much as possible about the study of speech delays (particularly Austism and PDD).
Specifically, I picked up this book because of a 2-year-old client I am currently seeing who seems particularly bright but who has been identified as 'at-risk' for Autism on the FEAS scale. He currently recieves almost 20 hours a week of 'early intervention' services and both his parents and I worry that this much therapy may be innapropriate for a child of his age and functioning abilities. At the very least, Sowell's book reminded me of my own limitations as a diagnostician, the importance of positive, open, sympathetic interaction with parents, and the importance of embracing a client's individual differences while developing their intervention program.
However, although Sowell presents a compelling case for the existence of a subset of 'late-talkers' whose development is possibly further compromised by intervention services, his book offers little practical advice for parents of such children other than telling them to seek evaluations from a variety of clinical and medical experts. He makes little if no reference to the importance of factoring a child's receptive language ability and a child's ability to signal a want/desire using complex gestures in determining the likelihood of future 'spontaneous' language abilities.
Additionaly, Sowell makes several one-sentance disclaimers about not offering parents "false-hope". However, it seems likely that there are more parents of special needs children like the one on p. 145 who might interpret Sowell's theories as an endorsement of a 'wait-and-see' attitude.
Book Review: Thank you for this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
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".
Book Review: Excellent Yet Limited
Summary: 4 Stars
This book makes the excellent point that not all children with speech or language delays have cognitive deficits. And it is clear that there is a specific subset of children who have speech or language delays that have many specific elements in common -- the immediate relatives in analytical professions, etc.
My real quarrel with this book is philisophical -- that the authors don't want these children "labelled," as if labelling were a bad thing, and it does not offer suggestions about how to respond to the fact that a child might have this syndrome. If the author makes the very valid point that some children who talk late are bright or of average intelligence, he should not end the inquiry there. Some children in his study don't talk at all. They're silent. Some are voluble -- they talk all the time -- but until very late, you can't understand a word they're saying.
Personally, I think that this syndrome is not a unified disorder, and a lot of the issues look like either Sensory Integration Issues or Asperger's Syndrome. But even if research shows this to be a unified disorder, now what? The authors are really suggesting that the parent merely clutch this book and smile when confronted by educators, passers-by, onlookers, grandparents, in-laws, friends, pediatricians, dentists and mechanics, who ask what's wrong with the child? Who throw diagnoses out? And what of the child with limited social skills? Is it responsible to indulge oneself in the avoidance of labelling, even though the existence of a label might allow children to get services outside a private setting? (Because even if a child will learn eventually to talk on his own fine, is it fair to have a 28-month-old in preschool who cannot make himself understood at all, if six months of speech therapy will fix the problem and doing nothing means the child will be unintelligible for twelve or eighteen months?). Is it fair to just smile and clutch the book if some of these children have social skills deficits that could be fixed with the same kind of training given children with Asperger's syndrome? Don't these children deserve to go through their toddler and preschool years without having all the adults in their lives look at them and shake their heads? Don't they deserve the same chance at a normative social life as any other cognitively normal, or gifted, child?
Contrast this book with The Out-of-Sync Child, by Carol Kranowitz, which not only describes a little-known but legitimate syndrome, but also gives suggestions for treatment and even things that can be done at home to make life less uncomfortable for sufferers of sensory integration disorder.
It may be that the Einstein Syndrome is a unified disorder, and the book makes an excellent case with regard to a discrete population of children who would otherwise be misdiagnosed. But the inquiry feels like watching someone begin a sentence and then stop talking too soon.
Book Review: necessary but needs more rigorous treatment & more open mind
Summary: 3 Stars
Many people need a book like this and need to understand that the children, usually boys, as described by Thomas Sowell exist, but I'm happy that the baton of the work is being passed to Steven Camarata. In the meantime though, Sowell has attained a very high status among some parents who speak highly of him and their children who fit the "Sowell profile". I don't think it needs to end there though.Sowell became aware that there are many boys who are intelligent, who speak late (and who come from technical families, but that came later), after he mentioned his own son in his conservative column. Parents began writing to him about their own children and asked his help in finding someone to further their understanding of their children's speech issues. He sought specialists and researchers interested in compiling the data but couldn't find anyone who wanted to do it. Happily, from the data as it currently stands, these children will likely have excellent prognoses.
Unfortunately, I found Sowell to be judgemental of "semi-professionals" and of parents who have to utilise school district services for therapy for their children. Sowell never fully defines a "professional" nor does he suggest how those of us with balking insurance will get all the coverage we need. He is, rightly, dismissive of physicians who quickly diagnose children with Pervasive Developmental disorders or autism based on short screenings.
I appreciated the section that discusses brain allocation- how the brain might work on one task at a time to the lying by of working on other tasks. I would like to see a more scientific, rigorous approach to this as it relates to speech development.
He is correct in suggesting that some children respond poorly to speech therapy, but I don't believe that dismissing all therapists because of this is the right path. I know that my later speaking children both responded to some therapists and disliked others.
I like to think I trust the range of normal development and my ability to understand my children, but if a parent is worried, this book might be good resource for them. Hopefully, better work will be coming out in the next few years.