This is a review of The Late Talker: What to Do If Your Child Isn’t Talking Yet by Marilyn Agin, Lisa Geng, and Malcolm Nicholl. Marilyn Agin is a developmental pediatrician that specializes in apraxia and Lisa Geng is a mother of two late talkers. This book’s target audience is parents, not professionals. They want to educate parents of toddlers who are late talkers. Their first chapter is a brief overview of normal speech development and the second talks about the consequences of speech delays. The third chapter briefly introduces you to speech disorders in general and Childhood Apraxia of Speech in particular. These first three chapters are a well written overview of the background information you need to know in order to understand what exactly the problem is with your child’s speech and why it matters.
Next the book begins to go into what you can do about it. Chapter four is about the various professionals you will meet when you begin to try to get help: developmental pediatricians, speech-language pathologists, pediatric neurologists, etc. Chapter 5 is about getting the right kinds of therapy. Chapter 6 is about insurance. Chapter 7 is about things you can do at home (several good ideas here). Chapter 8 is about fish oil supplementation. Chapter 9 is about your child’s frustration and how you can cope with it. Chapter 10 is about your frustration and fears as a parent and how to cope. Chapter 11 is a summary.
Pretty much every chapter covers a topic that is interesting as a parent who is dealing with a child who is a late talker. I highly recommend the book. I think it is a great place to start if you’re just beginning to research. I think it can be a useful review that might hit some areas you’re unfamiliar with even if you’ve been looking into CAS for a while.
If you have a Kindle, or a smartphone that runs Kindle, you can download a sample of this book for free. If I remember correctly, the sample includes the introduction and maybe even the first chapter. I was able to get the book through my local library. Even if I had purchased it, I would have felt it was money well spent. I also saw the book at my local Barnes and Noble. So it is pretty easy to get your hands on a copy of this book if you are interested.
If you've read it, or go out and read it, let me know what you think.
