If your child isn't talking by 24 months, don't panic: He's probably not mentally impaired. According to experts, many "late-talking" children are often very bright; speech slackers -- Albert Einstein included -- are usually just late bloomers.
But children who are slow to speak do need attention. The National Center for the Study of Language Intervention at the Kennedy Center for Research in Human Development at Vanderbilt University was launched specifically to help less verbal tots learn to communicate.
The institute -- funded in part by a National Institutes of Health grant -- uses several psychological techniques to help children open up. A clinician may present a toy to a child, see how he verbally reacts to it and gently correct his grammar, for example. Or the clinician will take a toy in hand, and give it to the child only after he attempts to communicate verbally. A year since it opened, the institute is now beginning to undertake neurological studies that examine biological patterns unique to late-talking kids.
