Blog 11: Are Twins Language Delayed???

Mark that this text does NOT provide any PROOF, but rather consists of a collection of research material about this topic, which the author compares and discusses. It is part of a study regarding language development in fraternal and identical twins aged up to three years. The content does NOT need to be your personal opinion! But you should be able to discuss it in an academic way.

This article can be important for English teachers dealing with diversity and differentiated instruction.

People who ARE twins or HAVE twins in their families/among their friends are asked to contribute some interesting observations, to enlighten us ;-)


The reading summary is done by:
ENGL300-1: Maurice Hatch
ENGL300-2: Tim Jung

Jennifer Ganger explores the issue as to whether or not there is a delay in the language development of twins. Studies suggest that there is in fact a language development delay in twins.

One study, done by Davis in the 1930's, suggested that twins could be as far as 2 years behind "singletons" (or children born without a twin). This was done with children aged 1.5-5.5. Davis conducted another experiment with twins and singletons aged 5-9 and found that twins were more likely to have articulation issues.

Ganger points out that these studies were flawed, as they did not exclude twins who had speech, language, or hearing pathology--which is something that is apparently not uncommon in twins.

Other studies, however, were not as flawed and also yielded interesting results. One such study, conducted under Mittler, used the Illinois test of Psycholinguistics and found that twins were six months behind singletons at age four.

Another study by Record, McKeown, and Edwards suggested that twins performed 5 points lower than singletons on an exam given at the 11^th year in British schools.

These studies don’t factor out premature birth or low birth weight as a variable that might throw a wrench into the scientific research. So in 1986, a study was conducted using singletons and twins to see how low birth weight affected language development. As it turns out, twins were actually ahead of singletons in this respect, suggesting that low birth weight adversely affects singletons more likely than twins.

Studies now tend to suppose that there is a social aspect to language development (or lack thereof) in twins. Some psychologists believe that parental language plays a large part in the language development of children. Another complication is the idea that twins will communicate with each other as well as a parent. This can be a source of a slowing of development, as other studies suggest that younger siblings hold lower IQ’s.

It is important to note that these studies are broad generalizations, and certainly do not apply as outliers can be found in these studies. I think that there is a lot of hasty conclusions being drawn—particularly about siblings—based on a limited amount of information. The idea of using IQ scores as a measure of intelligence is, in my opinion, very antiquated and about as scientific as believing that garbage spontaneously generates rats and insects.

All of that being said, I do think that parents and adults/older siblings have a serious impact on the linguistic development of young minds, and that this should be looked into more—particularly how language structures consciousness. This probably goes beyond what science can presently do, though I do think it would be very interesting to see if there could be a study done to suggest a stronger link to linguistic development and surrounding factors: environment, culture, parents, etc.

Overall, I think it is good that the author knows that what she is suggesting could be explained by many other factors that affect the studies. - Tim Jung

After reading the article entitled Are Twins Delayed in Language Development, the ability to draw a conclusive result is almost impossible. Jennifer Granger does a good job of presenting both sides of the argument, meaning not only did Granger point out what the scientific study results were, but also shows how these results were reached and the flaws associated within them.

A scientist by the name of Mittler conducted an experiment involving 200 twins and 100 singletons (children without siblings) testing their psycholinguistic abilities. The test results proved twins were about 6 months behind singletons at the age of 4.

Another test conducted by Record, McKeown, and Edwards tested thousands of singletons and twins after their 11^th year of school. The results of the exam showed that twins performed about 5 points lower than singletons on average. Also noted, singletons who were survivors performed in between the two populations.

Lastly, a test conducted by Akermann and Thomassen compared both twins and singletons and found that low birth weight accounted for the differences noted on a standardized language and locomotor test.

Though these minor differences between the groups provide an array of different results; these were not the only factors that contributed to the altering of test results.

Factors such as lack of effort to exclude subjects who inhibited language, speech, or hearing pathology effected results, ultimately lowering overall results. Also, no prior information such as reports on birth weight or time of gestation of the twins who participated (which is also known to be factors of language delay) were recorded. The order of birth was not considered a possible factor then, but was later discovered to be associated with language disturbances. Another factor that may have altered results comes from the lack of separation while experiments were conducted, influencing a more competitive mind-state for the children participating. Lack of separation may have put the subjects in a competitive mind-state, making the test almost like a race to be finished. The most important factor that may have swayed results can be attributed to the merging of the twin group. The results of the twins were factored in together, averaged, and then compared to that of the results of the singletons. The flaw with this comes down to the fact that the twin’s data were not independent of his/her co-twin; explaining how this lack of separation may have dramatically influenced test results as well.

In conclusion, teachers must be mindful of the environment in which he or she is teaching. Understanding the concepts and possible results of the test conducted can allow teachers to take a more complex or subtle approach to the students they teach and the methods they endorse.

Ultimately, Granger provided her readers with a clearer idea of the differences associated with psycholinguistics among singletons, twins, professors, and experiment conductors as well. Better results may arise after reading this article and taking into consideration the factors in which may alter the best possible results obtainable.

-Maurice Hatch 300-1.

Due by class time on: Friday, Sept. 23rd, 2011
The responses by the whole class are due by class time on: Monday, Sept. 26th, 2011
The text you need to read is here.