Thomas Sowell published his groundbreaking book The Einstein Syndrome[1] in 2001, following his earlier book Late Talking Children.[2] In The Einstein Syndrome, Sowell analyzes the traits of children with above-average intelligence who did not speak their first words until well beyond their first birthday—and in some cases, not until a second or even third birthday had passed. Nonetheless, these bright late talkers eventually began speaking and, over time, displayed talents in science, mathematics, or music.

For example, Julia Robinson was the first woman to serve as president of the American Mathematical Society, despite being a late talker and having a difficult childhood. Her mother died when Julia was a young child, and she missed two years of school due to illness when she was nine. Despite this traumatic beginning, Robinson showed an early aptitude for mathematics and enrolled at San Diego State University as an undergraduate when she was only 16. Seeking more advanced instruction, she soon transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, to pursue her passion. She earned a Ph.D. in 1948 and subsequently had a very productive scholarly career at Berkeley. Robinson was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1983.

Of course, the most famous bright late talker was Albert Einstein, whose name is synonymous with genius. Like Robinson, he entered advanced technical school at a young age and was very stubborn in pursuing knowledge that he was interested in while being far less diligent when the subject matter did not align with his aptitudes and passion.[3] Among numerous intellectual accomplishments, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 despite his parents’ initial concerns that he was learning disabled due to being very slow in learning to talk.[4]

These and other bright late talkers, including physicists Edward Teller and Richard Feynman and the musician Clara Schumann, are profiled in The Einstein Syndrome, which provides a framework for better understanding the highly intelligent scientists, mathematicians, and musicians who began speaking after age two—and in some cases far later. Advanced ability in visual-spatial and problem-solving ability are a near-ubiquitous trait among Einstein Syndrome cases. In addition to talking late, these individuals are strong-willed to the point of being quite stubborn and noncompliant.[5]

The biographies of these late talking geniuses and prodigies in The Einstein Syndrome demonstrate that not all late talking is the result of intellectual disability (formerly known as mental retardation), autism, ADHD, or any other medical or psychological condition requiring pharmacological or behavioral treatment or special education.

But in the 25 years since publication of The Einstein Syndrome, there has been a concerted—and in some ways disconcerting—effort to view *all *developmental differences, including late talking, through the lens of clinical “problems” with insufficient attention to normal developmental variation.

As examples, the US has instituted universal screening for autism by the age of two, and there is a nationwide push to define even relatively small learning and developmental differences as symptoms of a clinical condition such as ASD, ADHD, or intellectual disability. This can be problematic for bright late-talking children who are stubbornly focused on their interests because talking late is far and away the most frequent reason for initiating an assessment for autism or other types of learning disabilities in toddlers.

To be clear, no parent should ever assume a late-talking child is an example of Einstein Syndrome; all late-talking children should undergo a medical examination and hearing testing for health conditions potentially associated with late talking such as hearing loss, genetic factors, and/or neurological factors. Additionally, a differential diagnostic evaluation for autism, ADHD, speech and language disorder, and intellectual disability should always be completed. However, as Isabelle Rapin noted in her review of *The Einstein Syndrome, *"Certainly, providing a definite prognosis in very young children is hazardous because it is so subject to error, unless there is independent evidence for a serious neurologic problem with brain dysfunction or incontrovertible signs of truly exceptional cognitive ability.”[6]

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It is because “providing a definite prognosis in very young children is hazardous because it is so subject to error” that I long ago predicted that all—or nearly all—late talking children would eventually be placed on the autism spectrum, not because they demonstrated the reduced motivation for social interaction and a clinical reliance on routines and sameness that have always been the hallmarks of autism[7] but because of the late talking and the stubbornness chronicled in *The Einstein Syndrome, *coupled with an assessment process biased toward confirming eligibility for services, would inevitably result in placing nearly all late talking children on the autism spectrum.

As approximately 10 percent of all toddlers are late talkers, I predict the incidence of autism in the US will eventually be reported as 1 in 10. The last two decades have seen the incidence rate increase from 1 in 168 in 2005 to 1 in 31, so it shouldn’t be much longer before it reaches 1 in 10 and encompasses all late talking children—including those matching the Einstein Syndrome profile and the more than 50% of late talking toddlers who eventually catch up on their own.[8]

Although there is much debate about whether this dramatic increase is evidence of an autism epidemic, better diagnostic sensitivity in testing, redefinition and expansion of the autism spectrum, or a combination of all of these factors,[9] it is certainly true that referral for assessment has been increasingly predicated on late talking at ever earlier ages.

Coincidental with expanding the criteria for autism and medical conditions such as ADHD to essentially include nearly all late talking children, there has also been a systematic assault on gifted education and on focused, accelerated training in math and science in US education.[10] Worse, any sign of precocity in a particular area such as math or music, as is often seen in geniuses of all kinds, but especially in the Einstein Syndrome type of late talking, could potentially be mistaken for autism, ADHD, oppositional defiance, or another form of psychopathology simply because these advanced learners are ill-suited to today’s lockstep “common core,” one-size-fits-all educational mentality. Candidly, I do worry about future Einsteins, Robinsons, Tellers, and Schumanns being medicated and "special-educated" out of their genius because none of these Einstein Syndrome-type geniuses would have complied with rigid early intervention, nor subsequently filled out endless worksheets on subjects that were uninteresting to them in modern classrooms.

In accord with Sowell’s prescient framework for understanding—and nurturing—bright late talking children, it is crucial that the US reform education and medical practice to ensure that a) assessment of late talking children focuses on determining whether the late talking is a symptom of clinical developmental delays such as autism or a normal developmental stage[11] and b) early signs of genius such including the Einstein Syndrome are nurtured and encouraged** **rather than “treated” as a disability. Candidly, I worry these children will become casualties of a well-meaning but potentially misguided effort to regiment early childhood development and US education that ends up derailing their gifts.

References

[1] Sowell, T. (2001). The Einstein syndrome. New York: Basic Books

[2] Sowell, T. (1997). Late-talking children. New York: Basic Books

[3] Einstein, A., Stachel, J. J., Cassidy, D. C., & Schulmann, R. (1987). The Early Years, 1879-1902. Princeton University Press.

[4] Seelig, Carl (1956). Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography. London: Staples Press.

[5] Sowell, T. (2001). The Einstein syndrome. New York: Basic Books

[6] Rapin, I. Book Review: Diagnostic Dilemmas in Developmental Disabilities: Fuzzy Margins at the Edges of Normality. An Essay Prompted by Thomas Sowell’s New Book: The Einstein Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 32, 49–57 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017956224167. Quote on p. 49.

[7] Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.

[8] L. A. Rescorla & P. S. Dale (Eds.), Late talkers: Language development, interventions, and outcomes. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

[9] Fombonne, E. (2025). The autism ‘epidemic’: misinterpretation, misinformation and conspiracy. European Journal of Epidemiology, 40(9), 981-994.

[10] Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., & Gross, M. U. (2004). A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students. The Templeton National Report on Acceleration. Volume 2. Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development (NJ1).

[11] Camarata, S. M. (2025). Late-Talking Children, revised and expanded edition: Understanding Delays, Avoiding Misdiagnoses, and Navigating the Educational System: A Guide for Parents, Clinicians, and Educators. MIT Press.