The adorable video of babbling twins that has gone viral in cyberspace is more than a glimpse of two very cute babies. It is a lesson in early language development. The delighted (and delightful) back and forth and playing with sounds will lead to words, the basis of human relationships and the foundation of later literacy. What, exactly, is going on?
Boston.com points us to “The science behind babbling babies,” an interview with speech and language specialist Hope Dickinson posted on Children’s Hospital of Boston’s Thrive blog.
“They’re demonstrating a behavior known as ‘reduplicated babbling,’ because the sounds used are repeated, which you can hear in their use of ‘da-da-da.’ In a more informal way, I guess I would describe it as turn-taking with babbling, or conversational babbling,” Dickinson says.
“It’s fun because these two are demonstrating great mimicking of multiple aspects of conversation. It really demonstrates how very young children communicate and know how a conversation works, even before they have the words to use. They will eventually begin to replace the babbling strings with words,” she says.
“One thing they are using wonderfully is turn taking, as in first one ‘talks’ and then pauses and the other responds. They are also imitating the various intonations we use in conversation and speaking. There is fantastic rise and fall to their pitch and tones. Sentences or exclamations end loudly and emphatically, and there is also some questioning (rising) intonation. They are using gestures to supplement their talking, much like adults do. Their body distance is even very appropriate for most Americans; not too close, but not too far either.”
How can parents nurture and support their children’s language development? “The ‘usual’ staples of good language stimulation are simply: Talk to your child throughout the day and as much as possible, try narrating what he’s doing and seeing, what you’re doing and seeing, and what is going on around you,” Dickinson says.
For more on children’s language development and the path to literacy that begins at birth, check out the video “The Young Reader’s Journey.”
Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.
Fascinating video. It gives a glimpse into how twins go about developing their own language and how capable young toddlers are of communication. It also whets my interest in the use of sign language with very young children.
This is an identical twin video. I have spent many decades with young children, and have had the amazing luck to also be a mother of identical twins. What they do in language, play and reciprocity is like a squaring in some ways of what we typically see in young toddlers who don’t spend every waking second together, sleep in the same room and having a shared experience in utero, sharing parents, genetics, a ‘take on the world’ and so many other things.
Since I have had my twins (now almost 24 years ago!!!) I have had only a few opportunities to see this kind of supercharged relating that they do at this age.
It raises so many interesting points…both about language development, but also about the incredible intimacy among identical twins, something that the rest of us only see from the outside.
Somehow it is another look at humanity. One that has much to teach us about our potential for intimacy….
Anyway, thanks for sharing this video. Though I had already seen it. One of my twins sent it! And man did it bring back memories.