Schooling And Multiple Birth Children |
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Welcome
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Information from a presentation by TAMBA with presenters Dr Pat Preedy and Michelle Field (a speech and language therapist), given in May 2005. Background Dr Pat Preedy has carried out a large study of 2, 993 schools looking at 11,878 twins, 351 triplets and 5 sets of quads. She looked at the physical, intellectual and personal, social and emotional sides of development for multiple birth children. At the end of her study, Dr Preedy produced a model policy for schools (which can be viewed on www.twinsandmultiples.org ) and a questionnaire for parents to complete to help them before their multiple birth children start school. Physical Twins and other multiples have a higher risk of being exposed to a range of problems that may affect their development when compared to single children.
Intellectual Development Her study of intellectual development showed that in most cases by the end of Reception, most twins and other multiples have closed any small gap that may have existed between themselves and single children. Personal, Social and Emotional Development The difference for twins and multiples to other siblings is that the relationship is more intense, and they experience the “couple effect”. Multiples form a unit and this shows itself in different ways. They may not develop the social skills to operate as individuals. For example dressing the same; demanding the same; being upset when one is ill; being affected when one is reprimanded and the “prima donna” effect (eg: oh twins how lovely!). From this Dr Preedy developed a theoretical model of multiple birth children (see handout) with different characteristics, ranging from the “extreme individual”, to “mature dependent”, to “closely coupled”. The “extreme individual” may play mostly alone, like his own friends and doesn't share friends, opts out if his twin is successful, polarises – goes to extremes (angel/devil), is excessively competitive, may dislike his co-multiple, refuse to dress alike, and may try to dominate. The “mature dependent” has shared and separate friends, is happy separated and together, is supportive of his co-multiple, has developed as an individual with his own identity, and may chose the same or different as his co-multiple. The “closely coupled” is unhappy when separated, wanting to be together most/all of the time. He may respond to co-multiple or group name, he cannot recognise a mirror image, he may use “twin language”, and he may slow down/speed up to keep together, especially at school. He may have few or no individual friends, and he combines with his co-multiple to form a unit and dress and behave identically. Individuality To develop a twin or multiple as an individual, this focus must be from birth, not when starting school. If parents propose to separate their twins/multiples at school then this separation will be difficult unless the children have already had opportunities to operate as an individual. To develop individuality and “mature dependence”:
When considering whether to separate twins/multiples in school, there are several issues to take into account:
Speech And Language Development Background Michelle Field is a speech and language therapist and herself a mother of twins. Delay in Speech and Language Development Studies of twins and other multiples have found that these children have a significant delay – average 6 months, behind singletons in the pre-school years. The important time for speech and language development is age 0-3 years. Before the age of 4 there are interventions that can be successful, but, for example, a child who stammers at age 7 is likely to stammer as an adult. The main risk factors for speech and language developmental delays are more prevalent in multiple births, and there are additional risks for multiples that do not occur for singletons: For all children
For multiples, the additional risks are
An exacerbating factor can be late diagnosis from the Health Visitor or even that the delay is “because they are twins”. Single children take their role model for language from the adult who is their prime carer. But twins and other multiples often spend more time with each other than with their prime carer. Often they don't have the opportunity to spend time with their prime carer on a “one-to one”. But even with this long list of risks, even if 3 or more risk factors apply, most multiple birth children do not have any speech or language problems. What You Can Do To Help Your Child's Speech and Language Development
How Does Speech and Language Develop? From birth to 12 months your children should be cooing, babbling, laughing, waving, showing affection, understand “no” and “bye”, recognise object names and single requests, begin to use specific sounds, e.g. dadada, and may acquire first true words (average is 13 months). From 12 to 24 months your children will be using jargon that sounds like words, they will recognise words and copy new words. They will point, and will be frustrated when they can't communicate. Your child will be able to give you familiar objects on request, e.g. book, and will be able to copy back your last word. From the age of 2 –3 your children will use between 50 – 200 recognisable words, and will be able to concentrate for 5 minutes. Your children will be able to put 2 –3 words together to make a simple sentence and will be able to recognise himself/herself by name. Your children will enjoy stories, nursery rhymes and songs, and know his/her body parts – e.g. head, feet, hands etc. Your child will enjoy playing with dolls, and will talk during play. Above all, your children will ask questions, often lots of them! From the age 3 – 4 your children's speech sounds will be mostly correct. Their fluency will increase although sometimes tenses will be confused. Your children will understand concepts such as colour and size, and can pretend that a n object is something else. Your children can count to 10, their speech is 80% intelligible and they have a large vocabulary. From the age 4 – 5 your children will speak fluently, be grammatically correct and intelligible. Your children will use 4 – 6 word sentences, and will ask why? and lots of other questions. Your children will construct their own stories, and understand abstract words and numbers. Your children will play pretend games with other children, enjoy jokes, and be able to concentrate for 10 minutes. What criteria are used for referral to a speech and language therapist?
If you have any concerns about your children's speech and language development speak to your Health Visitor and ask to be referred to a Speech and Language Therapist.
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