Product Description What parents need to know about the causes and treatment of children's late talking: how to avoid misdiagnoses, navigate the educational system, and more. When children are late in hitting developmental milestones, parents worry. And no delay causes more parental anxiety than late talking, which is associated in many parents' minds with such serious conditions as autism and severe intellectual disability. In fact, as children's speech expert Stephen Camarata points out in this enlightening book, children are late in beginning to talk for a wide variety of reasons. For some children, late talking may be a symptom of other, more serious, problems; for many others, however, it may simply be a stage with no long-term complications. Camarata describes in accessible language what science knows about the characteristics and causes of late talking. He explains that late talking is only one of a constellation of autism symptoms. Although all autistic children are late talkers, not all late-talking children are autistic. Camarata draws on more than twenty-five years of professional experience diagnosing and treating late talkers―and on his personal experience of being a late talker himself and having a late-talking son. He provides information that will help parents navigate the maze of doctors, speech therapists, early childhood services, and special education; and he describes the effect that late talking may have on children's post-talking learning styles. Review The book on late-talking children. Stephen Camarata is a godsend for their parents.― The American Spectator For parents who have a small child who is still not talking, at an age when other children have long since begun to speak, there is no better gift than the new book Late-Talking Children.― Thomas Sowell, The American Spectator Review As parents with developmental concerns about our children, we often are told we are the best experts on our own child. This is especially true if we have good information at the start. For parents of late-talking children, including those with an autism diagnosis, this book is that. Camarata invites your critical thinking by providing a base of real knowledge.― Sue Swenson, parent, and former Commissioner for Developmental Disabilities, US Department of Health and Human Services About the Author Stephen M. Camarata is Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt School of Medicine.