A study of language development in a set of bilingual, biracial, identical twins

Abstract

The study of language--its developments and disorders-- is of extreme interest to the speech/language pathologist. On rare occasions, these interests may be combined when two emerging languages may conflict to create a delay of both. This situation presented itself recently at the Ball State University Speech, Language, and Hearing Clinic with the enrollment of a set of bilingual, biracial twins.Neither of the twins had developed adequate language in either language system and, thus, were enrolled for language therapy programs. As standard American English emerged, this study was proposed to evaluate the development of their linguistic skills. As an added opportunity, the fact that they were identical twins allowed for a comparison between children who demonstrated the same genetic background and an almost identical environment. This allowed for the study of their language development and a comparison of their language disorders. The purpose of this study was to do so with both standardized tests and through the use of a free language sample analysis of the productive speech of each twin.