Twins seem to learn the use of the personal pronoun `I' at an
earlier age than single children. Do identical twins have a
language of their own?
There seems to be many more multiple births nowadays than
there used to be. There is a widespread belief that twins are
more likely to be delayed in speech and are more prone to
impaired language development than single children, that they
have a language of their own and that is the reason for the
delay. Is this a fact or just an old wives' tale? Are twins
really more likely to be different from the rest of the
population? Is research into the subject conclusive enough to
be able to generalize? There is plenty of anecdotal evidence,
but has there been true research into the subject?
Early studies of twins are not to be relied on entirely.
Twins on the whole are between six and eight months behind in
their language development than single children. It is a fact
that premature and low birth weight babies are often found to
be delayed in their speech and language development. When
studying normal speech and language development in children,
care is taken to exclude all those who have problems either
in speech or language or hearing. In the early studies of
twins, these children were not excluded.
More recently, Professor Plomin of London and Professor Dale
of Washington began a study of the language of twins born
seven years ago, enlisting the help of their parents. The
study included 1044 sets of identical twins, almost a
thousand opposite-sex twins and over a thousand non-identical
twins. When the twins were two, parents were given a list of
100 words which are commonly used by two-year-olds. They
found that the average number of words used by twins from the
whole sample was 48 words. With some using more and some
less, of course, but five percent of the children did not
produce any recognizable words.
An early delay in speech and language acquisition does not
always mean that a child will have language and reading
problems later on in life. About half these children catch up
spontaneously. The researchers are following up the twins to
see which of the five percent with delayed speech will catch
up and which of them need help. They are trying to find out
whether the cause is environmental or genetic.
It is a well known fact that language develops when parents
interact with their children. It is vital that mothers,
fathers, carers and other adults who come into contact with a
child speak to them. It seems that older children are more
articulate, more advanced, than later born children in the
same family. Mothers have more time and are somehow more
ambitious for their first children. Thus, subsequent children
in the same family, although they hear their siblings
speaking, may not relate to them. It has to be directed
at them. Counting fingers and toes, naming parts of
the body, noticing and pointing out things in the street when
shopping, reading books on a one-on-one basis and telling
stories are some of the many methods used to help a young
child acquire language.
When there are twins, mothers have less time to spend with
each one alone. Twins tend to do things together, especially
when they are very young. Mothers tend to use shorter
sentences when addressing twins and have less "conversation"
when there are two. The one most likely to listen to a twin
is the other twin. Some parents report that their twin
children have a "language of their own." This "idioglossia",
as it is called, is not as prevalent as is thought, although
it is widely discussed. The ones who develop this
unintelligible private language, where they have created
their own vocabulary and which frequently has its own grammar
and syntax, are usually the ones with immature or delayed
speech, which, as shown, does not affect a large percentage
of the twin population. However, they often `talk' to each
other at an early age. One child might initiate the
conversation with `da'. The twin will reply with `da' or `da
da'. This can continue for quite a while till one of them
initiates a change of syllable. These `conversations' are
usually held in their cribs in the mornings or evenings, and
make interesting listening for parents and older siblings
(from outside the door).
There are one or two factors which I personally have noticed
amongst several sets of twins, but that is far from a
scientific study. Twins seem to learn the use of the personal
pronoun `I' at an earlier age than single children. Perhaps
parents with twins and several other children would like to
comment? Secondly, twins tend to complete each others'
sentences. I have heard twelve- year-old twin girls saying:
"I am ever so tired..." (Twin Two) "... so I think I'll go to
bed early tonight." Parents of twins may like to observe this
phenomenon. Incidentally, the aforementioned twins are so
alike that their parents tend to address them as one entity,
which is NOT recommended in developing their individual
personalities, but these two do not seem to object. The
mother might say inclusively, "Sora Rivka, have you brushed
your teeth?" Or "Did you have a good day at school, Sora
Rivka?" with these being TWO girls. As they are in the same
class, they do not vie with each other as children usually
do, to gain Mother's attention. One of the girls begins a
sentence and the other one completes it.
As far as experts' advice on speech acquisition is concerned,
the consensus seems to be that one should treat the children
as one does singletons. When they are toddlers, if one can
involve them in the same activity at the same time, make sure
to speak to each one individually and give each child an
equal chance to answer. As there is often a more dominant
child between the two, this is not always as simple as it
sounds. If one of the identical twins is delayed in speech,
the chances are that the second one will be, too. Non-
identical twins, according to statistics, only have about a
30% chance of their both being delayed. As with single
children, if one is concerned about a child's language
development, one should not wait to seek professional help
and advice after the age of about three.
Raising twins is quite a different subject and mothers whose
twins, or several sets of twins, are grown and married, are
probably the best people to give advice, guidance and useful
hints to mothers who are just beginning the difficult
enjoyable task of raising theirs.
