I recently read research that indicated that there are significant delays both in language and motor skills in twins. It doesn’t stop there; the same is supposedly true for siblings who are close together in age. Siblings who are close in age (including twins), are on average, six to eight months behind their singleton counterparts.
According to the research, my children are doomed: all two years apart, except of course for the twins who are only minutes apart. They are by birth order destined to be behind those kids whose parents had the insight to only have one or two children spread a few years apart. I might as well put the home schooling books on the shelves and sign up for speech therapy because they’re going to need it.
Now please don’t misread my sarcasm as a dispute to the validity of the research. Quite the contrary, it makes a lot of sense to me. I know that I cannot possibly give each of my kids the individual, one on one attention they want. But just to satisfy my curiosity, I asked my pediatrician her opinion on my blessed darlings’ perspective outcomes. Being the fantastic pediatrician that she is, she read my aforementioned study and agreed with it!
Then she gave me a list of absolutely revolutionary ideas to help counter balance the chaos my husband and I have created by having so many children, so close together. Although these ideas are the latest in interaction technology, they are thankfully, very easy on the budget!
1. Eat dinner together at least 4 times a week–even if it’s take out. Children learn how to speak, and communicate their ideas through regular dialogue with their parents and each other. Some studies have suggested that one of the most consistent factors in future school success is regular family dinner time.
2. Turn off the T.V. Research has shown that human interaction is much more valuable in terms of encouraging speech than (gasp) even interactive T.V. Human brains, are capable of processing information much faster than T.V. gives it.
3. Stop wasting your money on electronic toys that will entertain your children and buy good books instead. Read to your children at least once a day and more if you can.
4. Play with your baby and talk to him while you’re together. Play peek-a-boo, patty cake, or whatever else comes to your mind. Experts say the most important time for picking up language, is between the ages of 0-18 months. . .before they’re actually talking.
It’s that simple–really?
We spend hundreds of dollars on interactive DVD’s and toys for our babies convincing ourselves that we need them. Companies have us believing that in order to give our kid’s “the edge”, we must buy, buy, and buy. We need baby sign language and books about teaching babies to read. We need interactive DVD’s, puppets, electronic gizmos, and interactive books that play music and read to your baby at the same time!
I’m not against electronic toys or DVDs. We certainly own our fair share of Baby Einstein and similar products. I will readily admit that my kids watch T.V. every day. I am not saying either, that simply doing these things will prevent all speech problems. However, as a generation of parents, we need a paradigm shift from interactive to interaction!
Related Articles:
Speech and Language Development
Speech: One to Two Years
Causes of Speech and Language Delays
Speech: Birth to 12 months