Personal
Late-Talking Children
by Thomas Sowell · 1997
When his own son was late to talk, Sowell did what he always does. He went looking for the data. What he found challenged everything the experts were saying.
Clay's Take
Most people don't even know this book exists. It's nothing like his other work. Sowell's son John didn't speak until nearly age four, despite being obviously bright. Doctors gave the standard grim diagnosis. Sowell wrote about it in his syndicated column and was flooded with letters from parents in the same situation. He formed a research group of 55 families and this book came from that data. The pattern: most late talkers in the study were boys, with strong memories, good puzzle-solving skills, and close relatives in analytical professions or music. Einstein, Feynman, and Edward Teller were all late talkers. Sowell's son John is now a computer scientist. If you're a parent losing sleep over a child who isn't talking yet, this might matter more to you than anything else he ever wrote.
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