This article was originally published in February 2018.
Life Course Centre Chief Investigators Professor Cate Taylor and Professor Stephen Zubrick, Centre Research Fellow Daniel Christensen, along with co-authors Dr Mabel Rice and Professor Eve Blair, have published a paper about the possible causes of Late Language Emergence (LLE) in twins in BMC Pediatrics.
LLE in the first two years of life is one of the most common parental concerns about child development and reasons for seeking advice from health professionals. It is much more prevalent in twins (38%) than singletons (20%).
In the first two years of life, children achieve important milestones in language development that are highly anticipated by parents. Children with normal language emergence (NLE) typically start to produce single words around their first birthday. By their second birthday, children with NLE start to combine two to three words in simple sentences, signalling the emergence of grammar. The term ‘Late Language Emergence’ (LLE) is used to describe toddlers who, despite otherwise healthy development, do not meet age expectations for receptive and/or expressive language development at 24 months. Failure to attain these milestones are ‘red flags’ for referral to a developmental paediatrician.
The results of this study have drawn attention to the role of gestational diabetes, a prolonged time to spontaneous respiration (TSR) (at birth), and foetal growth restriction in causing LLE. These risks are all well-known complications of twin pregnancy and risk factors for LLE in singletons. This study has shown the pervasive adverse influence of these risks on twins’ neurodevelopment in the second year of life. Prenatal life is a critical phase of brain development, during which even subtle differences in foetal growth have been associated with differences in postnatal brain maturation and cognitive abilities in twins.
Their results suggest that adverse prenatal and perinatal environments are important in the etiology of LLE in twins at age two. It is important that health professionals discuss twin pregnancy and birth risks for delayed speech and language milestones with parents and provide ongoing developmental monitoring for all twins, not just twins with overt disability.