Late talkers do fine as they grow up: Study

NEW YORK - In good news for parents of children who talk late, an Australian study shows that a slow start on language is unlikely to have lingering effects on the children's mental health.

Andrew Whitehouse and colleagues at the University of Western Australia followed late talkers into their teens in an unusual long-term study and found that they were no more likely to be shy, depressed or aggressive than their peers as they grew up.

"Expressive vocabulary delay at the age of 2 years is not in itself a risk factor for later behavioral and emotional disturbances," the group wrote in the journal Pediatrics.