Posted on 09/15/2014 10:32:00 AM PDT by jazusamo
Anyone who knows what anxiety, and sometimes anguish, parents go through when they have a child who is still not talking at age two, three or even four, can appreciate what a blessing it can be to have someone who can tell them what to do — and what not to do.
That someone is Professor Stephen Camarata of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, whose recently published book, "Late-Talking Children" gives parents information and advice that they are not likely to find anywhere else. And it does so in plain English.
Professor Camarata has been researching, diagnosing and treating children with speech problems for decades. Moreover, he knows from personal experience what it is like to be a parent of a late-talking child, and he himself was three and a half years old before he began to speak. So he has seen this problem from many angles.
A child can be years behind schedule in beginning to speak and yet go on to have a perfectly normal life. Some children with delayed speech may even be noticeably brighter than other children their age. But, for other late-talking children, the delay in beginning to speak can be a symptom of much deeper and long-lasting problems, including mental retardation or autism.
Most parents are in no position to know which of these very different conditions applies to their own child. Nor is it easy to find out, because there are so many people so ready to put labels on late-talking children that can follow these children for years, even when these labels have no solid foundation.
False diagnoses of late-talking children are by no means rare. Even Albert Einstein was thought to be retarded, when he failed to talk at an age when most other toddlers begin to speak...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Our youngest was a late talker and we used a lot of ASL to communicate as well. He communicated so well with it that we knew everything was OK mentally.
His speech development had been normal until 18 months when he had a serious bout of RSV. After that he really regressed.
Fortunately he had a young friend who LOVED to sing children’s songs. The singing really brought my son back around to being verbal. As some others have commented, since then we can’t shut him up.
Music is a wonderful tool! It involves both hemispheres of the brain, or so I’ve been told.
I read this excellent book years ago when my now 16-year-old was a very late-talking 4-year-old.
I found it informative and well-written.
Sadly, my Johnny was not a late talker because of a stage or anything like that. He had suffered a stroke resulting in a cognitive loss.
BTW, his cardiologist just last week told me that he’d been reviewing Johnny’s records with his colleagues. Upon this review, in conjunction with some new research, they suspect that his stroke did not occur after birth, but in utero instead. We will never know for sure, though.
Anyway, the book is terrific and I recommend it to anyone with a late-talking child.
Regards,
I didn’t talk until I was four. Both of my sons were also late talkers.
A mistake parents can make is to allow the special education to get a hold of your late-talking child. They can ruin a normal child by instilling in him a sense that he is incapable of doing anything without help.
I will forever regret listening to the special education “experts.” The damage they did to my son is unforgivable.
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