My Life With Twins: Twin Language Development
A lot of parallel play, not a lot of speaking.
Ever since I found out that I was pregnant with twins, I looked forward to seeing how their language would develop. I had heard conflicting reports of twins developing language earlier or later, and of even developing their own “twin language”. This special twin language development was always intriguing to me.
Before I had the twins, I had four singleton boys. None of them were particularly early talkers, but none began talking so late as to cause worry. I like to say that none of them had much to say until they were three years old.
The girls have been different. They were born at term (38 weeks) and were mostly healthy at birth. From the start they have been more verbal than their brothers, and yet, now at eighteen months old, they do not have a very large working vocabulary. However, they talk a lot! The Rev. likes to point out to people at the twins have begun talking, they just don’t speak English yet.
Both girls use basic signs, and have some basic words, but really are not nearly as advanced as some of their peers. Emily is our most verbal, with a largely negative vocabulary (no, stop, don’t) Elizabeth still loves to hum.
Am I worried? nah. I might be if these were my first kids, or if my others spoke sooner. I know that their receptive language (what they hear) is very good as both can follow very detailed directions. So we keep reading books and labeling things and teaching signs and I talk to those little boogers all day long!
I do like to watch how the girls can communicate with each other even without speaking. While I don’t know that they have a distinctive twin language per se, they do communicate better with each other than they do with the rest of us.
So, Chime in! What about your multiples? Did they talk earlier, later or the same as you would have expected? Do you have any tips or tricks to share? You know I’d love to hear from you!
Do you have twins, are expecting twins or know someone who is? Make sure you click on over to my “Got Twins?” page and learn more about the wonders of twindom! Lots of advice and experience from pregnancy, breast feeding and beyond!
Twin-speak – I just love it. Gina and I are always finishing each others sentences. I think it is so wonderful that you have twins!!!
You’re right not to be worried! Too often we can’t help but compare. I think most parents have that natural gut instinct if there really is something wrong.
Have a great weekend! Thanks for hopping by my blog.
Twin language has always fascinated me too. Two of my cousins had twins and their feelings on it were pretty much the same as yours – they communicate better with each other than anyone else but they wouldn’t go as far as to say it was another language. I’m sure you have seen the You Tube video of the talking twins but this report on it from abcnews is really cute!
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/twin-talk-video-babies-babble-adults/story?id=13246486#.TysEpYGc1dg
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