our pad

our pad

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Twin Talk

The twins are now two and a half and talking a lot these days. There speech has been somewhat delayed but never enough to qualify them for early Intervention services. Although they are quite chatty, that is not to say I can always understand them. In fact I think its safe to say that most other people would not be able to understand them most of the time. I can usually get the gist of their fragmented sentences but some words I try my hardest to understand but often can not decipher for the life of me, so I'll guess, then say "show me", then play 20 Questions, before I finally resort to asking the other twin what her sister is saying, to which that twin will reply the same word in the same pronunciation while seeming to completely understand, but still leaving me dumbfounded. I guess we do have some twin-talk going on. Both Avery and Ella speak in the third person. I don't know if its because they are constantly trying to distinguish themselves from their sister, but most sentences from Ella begin with "Ella's turn" or "Ella nak" (Ella wants a snack)" or "Ella's baby" and similarly Avery says "Avery have boo-boo" or " Avie go side" (Avery wants to go outside). Avery also pronounces all her "F's" like "P's" and "L's" like "Y's" among other letter reversals. So a sentence she uttered today went: "Avie Mommy's yipstick on pace." (Avery put Mommy's lipstick on her face) or another "Avie want yots pishies" (Avery wants lots of fishes). Ella tends to answer her own sentences: "Here you go, thank you, welcome." or "Sowwy, its Ok!". They both love to answer for each other a lot too. I'll ask Ella if she needs to go Potty, to which she'll reply, "No Avie needs go Potty." Or I'll ask Avery if she's ready for a nap to which she'll always reply "No Eyya ready nap". I've learned to never ask who did something when I find a mess, or the shade in the bedroom pulled down, or a puddle on the floor because always with out fail Ella will say, "Avie did it" and Avery will say with out any hesitation, "Eyya did it!" Here's a sample conversation from earlier in the day in the sandbox, before both girls lied down and completely covered themselves head to toe in sand requiring mid-day tubs...

3 comments:

  1. Our girls use a lot of third person, too, and I didn't know if it was a "twin" thing or not. I don't have experience with singletons to compare, but it makes sense to me that they're trying to distinguish themselves from each other, as you said.

    I always think about how having twins accentuates some of the flaws in the English language, namely "you" being both singular and plural. I might say, "I bought this just for you," - meaning both of them - and one will inevitably say, "And sissy!" or "And [their own name]!" :)

    We had a speech pathologist speak to our MoMs group, and I asked her about this phenomenon. She encouraged me to use the girls' names more..."I bought this just for you, A and B," but that almost seems to reinforce them using third person.

    Definitely another interesting side of multiples! :)

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  2. So cute... and LOOK AT YOUR GORGEOUS PLAY AREA!! Anytime you want Avery and Ella to meet Ava and Emma, just let me know ;)

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  3. blogger just ate my comment!

    your daughters are adorable!!! Mine are into denial and volunteering the other one for things - "who wants to go for a bath first?" they each say the other's name! LOL

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