Twins and Language Development

Jennifer Ganger’s article on twin language capabilities compared with singletons of the same age provides insight into the common belief amongst psychologist that twins are at a disadvantage in language development. Ganger summarizes several studies that are used in determining this assumption. She points out flaws in the experiments themselves. Although she points out that there is evidence to support twins are at greater risk of having language problems, there is nothing that is concrete about any of the experiments in her opinion.
Ganger produces several case studies on the subject of twin language. Twin development versus singleton development has been studied since at least the early 20th century according to Ganger. She summarizes these early studies have problems with unintentional biases towards the twins.

The first two studies analyzed were Day and Davis. The Day Study concentrated on early childhood development, while The Davis Study focused on children from age five to nine. The Day study concluded that twins are likely to be up two years behind children without a twin. The Davis study, which was essentially the same study with older children, concluded the language deficiencies were almost always corrected around the age of five to nine. However, twins in the five to nine age groups were still more likely to have articulation problems. There were a few problems with these studies according to Ganger. One of the biggest problems was the twins studied were not always studied separately. This would skew the results, because the singleton children tested were alone. A few other problems were found and tested in other studies. Other issues that were not taken into account were birth weight, order of birth, time of gestation. These problems directly correlate to learning in all children.

Ganger shows more recent studies have concluded that there are a number of problem with the idea that twins will have language issues simple because they are twins. These more recent studies take into account the weight of the children at birth, the order of their birth, and the gestation period. Researchers took these problems into consideration and found evidence to support the theory that twins are more likely to lack their peers in language development. These studies found the cause of this problem is not simply because twins are born at the same time to the same mother, but the factors that causes slower development in children is usually present in a household with twins. For instance, twins have to share time speaking with adults. This gives the individual twin less time developing language skills. Twins also have a smaller birth rate than singleton children, which is a factor that causes slower development. The cause of a twin’s slower development is not by the presence of another, but the factors the other twin can bring.

The article concludes with a reminder that these tests are averages and do not doom people who are twins. There are many factors that can account for language delays. The language development of twins can be greatly influenced by the parents or guardians. Granger reminds her readers that nothing is concrete or exact in this type of study.

(by: Josh Evans)