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Retrospective parental report of earlier "twin language" was obtained for two groups of twins. Sample G consisted of 94 twin pairs between the ages of 7 and 13 years recruited through the school system as a general population sample. Sample L consisted of 82 twin pairs between the ages of 7 and 13 years who had been recruited for a genetic study; of these twin pairs at least one of the twins had a speech-language impairment persisting to school age. Parental report of twin language was higher (around 50%) for children with speech-language impairment than for those with normal language (11 %). Consistent with this, children with twin language obtained significantly lower mean language scores than other children, although their mean nonverbal IQ was equivalent. The exceptions were a handful of children whose parents described use of a "private language" that coexisted alongside normal use of English. These findings are consistent with the view that what is described as twin language is usually use of immature or deviant language by two children at the same developmental level.
KEY WORDS: twins, specific language impairment, private language
Reports of twins developing their own private language have appeared in the scientific literature throughout the twentieth century, yet relatively little is known about this phenomenon. Luria and Yudovich (1971) popularized the notion that twins use a special communication system, "autonomous language," because they have less need than other children to develop speech as a means of communication. "Since their lives are linked in the closest way, and they understand each other in the course of joint practical activity, twins are not faced with an objective necessity for transition to speech communication so frequently as other children" (p. 37). Developing this notion, Zazzo (1978) talked of "cryptophasia," "an archaic language, making use of sounds, words and syntax that are not those of the common language" (p. 8).
However, more recent studies have cast doubt on this notion. Savic (1980) concluded from a study of three Serbo-Croatian twin pairs that there was no such thing as a private twin language; rather, what is observed in some twins is a persistence of immature speech forms, which occurs just as much when the children communicate with adults as when they communicate...