In-Class Prompt, Feb. 18th, 2008: Language Development in Twins
Read the three pages I sent you in an email. They are excerpts (pp. 84, 85, 90) from an article by K. Mogford called “Language development in twins,” published in Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances, the textbook which also furnished us with information about Down’s syndrome and autism.
When you’re done reading, you might want to consider the following review of literature about the topic.
Get together in groups, and answer the following questions:
1) What were the astonishing results of studies as early as the 1930s about language development in twins?
2) Which reasons were given?
3) What is the “secret language” of twins?
Post the three answers, as well as a personal response (one per group) on this blog as a comment. Do you believe it? Do you know twins? Have you ever noticed it? Do you maybe have evidence against it?
P.S. 1
For those who want to know more about this striking topic, here’s the book preview with more pages about twins (for study at home).
P.S. 2
For the research project we are going to do in unit 4 at the end of the semester, we need two groups covering the topics “autism” and “twins.” It is not easy – we will do surveys, and you will have to interview / survey teachers of children with autism, maybe parents, and respectively, twins. I am asking for two volunteer groups (those who would like to work with their former WebQuest group) to sign up for these topics. If there are no volunteers, I will assign all the topics when we get to unit 4. This is your chance to sign up for your favorite topic....
7 comments:
Regina, Amanda, Josette says
Question #1
period before school they were impared compared to singletons. When they reached school age, they seemed to be developed as singletons.
Question #2 They had increased risk factors at the time of birth (environmentally and physically).
Question #3
The parents reported that the twins made sounds(language)that each child understood but not to others.
John Lynch, Von Smalley, Zach Casselman
The study showed that twins aged 2 to 5 years old were markedly retarded in all aspects of language development when compared to regular singleton children. The onset of speech was delayed 25 months, sentence structure wa s not developed, vocabulary was reduced, This inferiority increased over time, As twins get older, their language becomes closer to that of the singletons, although if they are raised in an unfavorable environment, their progress can be stalled. The three factors that are important are prenatal risk factors, social conditions, and biological factors.
There are many reasons for the delay. One of these is the prenatal risk factors involved in having twins. Also, having more than one kid can stretch the families budget, and also the parents ability to focus their attention on one child. Obviously this possible lack of attention can play a part in the process.
This is a form of language that comes out of a specially close relationship between twins. Researchers refer to it as cryptophasia, which literally means secret language. This language is secret because it is unintelligible to others. . This code is strange and archaic, making use of sounds that are not language used by adults. This process regards the process of socialized language.
I found the article very interesting. I was not aware that twins had a secret language that they shared between themselves. We found it interesting that this language was not taught to the children by their parents, rather it, to some effect, seems to be a language that was created on their own. I also found it really interesting that the more children in a family, the lower the rates were.
Jessica, Stephanie, Alex, Christian-
1.) Many early studies stated that the twins had delayed, sentence construction was immature, had reduced vocabulary, and low expressive language.
2.) The two main possible explanations are an increase in prenatal risk factors and the social disadvantage of an increasing family size and stretching the family resources to accommodate the twins. Also, the statistic of twins being born to lower social classes could be a factor.
3.)"Cryptophasia" is the "secret language" of twins which includes the idea of a language that only they can understand using sounds and movements. This language is said to be autonomous and is considered to have a retardation effect on the twins and their language development.
Personal Response-
The general opinion of this group is that this article is not the case in today's society. We all know sets of twins and this has not been the case with any of the people in question. As far as a "secret language", it is possible because we have heard of twins thinking a like and knowing what the other is thinking. However, we no not believe that such would be detrimental to language development.
Dan Colcord/Isaac Diaz/Ti'erra Taylor
1. The results of the studies showed that language development in twins was lower than that of singleton children.
2. Lower social status, parental time split between both children, resources, and other environmental factors were given.
3. They create a "secret language" that allows the 2 twins to communicate with each other in a different way then what they were taught. They use different syntax, gestures and sounds to communicate "secretly"
Group Response:
We don't buy it. We know twins and they do not show any problems whatsoever, and the experimental research was based on comparing twin families to singleton families when it should have been compared to multiple child families to get a real look at the development of twins.
Lindsay Buettner
Amanda Murphy
Ashley Wetzler
1. Day found that twins, aged 2-5 were markedly retarded in all aspects of language development when compared to singletons. The onset of speech was delayed with a mean of 25 months. Davis studied twins aged 5-9 and found that as the twins got older their language came closer to the singletons. However, some parts of the twins language remained delayed, such as; articulation and expressive vocabulary.
2. Having more than one child in the household can cause social problems. Parental risk factors; having twins can be a risk factor and can cause health problems in the children because they are being born at the same time.
3. The "secret language" of twins is something only between them. It is not made up of words, just sounds or gestures. It is something that they understand from always being together that other people would not.
Our response: We do not agree with the language development problems. Just because there is more than one child in the household does not mean that they will have language development problems. Two of us have twins in our family and they have well-developed language skills. We do agree with a secret language between twins however, because we know twins, they have told us they have a secret language.
Alsion Romershausen and Vanessa Knepp
1.) As of the studies by Davis and Day in the 1930's, language development of twins was stated as "markedly retarded in all aspects of language development."
2.) Increased perinatal risk factors, social disadvantage by increased family size, and likability to be impoverished are the reasons given for this retardation.
3.) The secret language of twins is the use of sounds, words, and syntax that are not used in language by adults or other children, and sounds archaic and strange. The families of 47% of twins said this was in use, and 71% of same-sex fraternal twins used it! This language was most likely caused by the close relationship between twins and the desire to be self-sufficient.
OUR COMMENT: We know many sets of twins, and never noticed ANY retardation. In fact, most were extremely smart!!! Therefore, we DO NOT believe that retardation is the right diagnosis for twins language development. The secret language, however is plausible. Many of our twin friends, have stated having such a relationship and language.
Amy McKenzie, Bryan Norbut, Bonnie Bilyeu
What were the astonishing results of studies as early as the 1930s about language development in twins?
-The researchers presumably found that there was a language deficiency in twins.
Which reasons were given?
-There were many different reasons for the supposed slower development of twins’ language acquisition. These included income level, lack of maternal affection, and the development of a secret language between the twins.
What is the “secret language” of twins?
-An inclusive way of communication developed between the twins because of their closeness which slows their social communicative skills.
As a group we found that this article is a little hard to buy into. We cannot see how the deficiency described here is a twin specific occurrence. Would this not also happen in multiple child families? One member of our group is friends with a family of 8 that each of the children took longer to learn to read than the last, and it seems that the same arguments could be made for that family as were made for the twins. Also, many times two siblings who are not twins will also develop a “secret language” between them. You can see this when the parents have a hard time understanding the younger child, and the older sibling is able to “translate” for them. Because of all these things we have a hard time believing the credibility of the argument in this article.
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