Guest Author - Kris Bigalk

Many twins lag behind their peers in speech development. Even within a set of twins, one twin may speak much more than the other, especially between the ages of 1 and 3. When one of my twins fell far behind the other in speech development, I had him assessed by Early Childhood Specialists in my area. While we haven't found a cause for his speech delay, the speech-language pathologist pointed out that several factors put him "at risk" for a delay, including his prematurity, being a twin, and surprisingly, his introverted personality. "He doesn't seek out a lot of interaction," she explained. "So, unlike his more extroverted brother, he doesn't get as much practice."

Besides trying harder to engage our more quiet twin, we have also tried to put the following ideas into practice to encourage language development in both twins.

Provide a "Director's Commentary" on the Day's Events
Have you ever watched a DVD with the director's commentary turned on? While the soundtrack and the action go on as usual, we hear the director's description of how the scene was staged, comments on the writing, whatever. Try doing this with your babies, while you go about the day's work. "Now I'm washing the dishes. This is a plate. See the plate?" You get the picture. Talk more, even if they can't talk back. They are learning to understand much earlier than they learn to speak.

Read Out Loud
I teach literature courses at a community college. One semester, I had a student with four children under the age of five at home. She got straight A's. So, one day I asked her how she did it. "I read the stories and poems out loud to the kids," she said shyly. "It's the only way I can get it read and keep them entertained." I thought this was a brilliant idea. Even if your kids don't understand half the words in a poem by Wordsworth, they will still understand the rhythm and inflection, which is part of learning speech. Of course, reading children's books to your twins is also a great way to encourage speech, especially if the books incorporate animal sounds the babies can mimic.

Identify Colors, Shapes, and Animals
You can do this in any environment—on the way to the park, in the playroom, or while you're watching an educational video or DVD, like Baby Einstein or Sesame Street. At mealtime, ask the babies what color their food is, and then tell them. You can also incorporate words for other senses—loud, soft, sweet, sour, stinky—and so on.

I'll admit that I felt a little ridiculous talking to myself all the time, but if that's what it takes to help my more quiet twin along the road to speaking, I'm willing to do it. Maybe they'll be quoting poetry by the time they're three, or maybe they'll just be singing the song from "Elmo's World"—either way, I'll feel like I've succeeded in helping them learn how to communicate.