Family

Family

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Our Virtual twins and language development







I have been doing some interesting research on Virtual twins. Virtual twins is defined by psychologists as 2 children who have no genetic connection, who are less then 9 months apart, and grow up in the same family from a young age.By that definition are little Russians are virtual twins.Psychologists have done a number of studies to see how environment vs genetics plays out.From what I have noticed is that virtual twins is much like rearing fraternal twins. I have noticed some interesting twin like behaviors in our munchkins. What I find interesting is they have only known each other for a little over 4 months and yet they appear to have a very deep connection to one another and have some very classic twin behaviors.It will certainly be interesting to see their relationship in a few years.Would love to hear from any ones experiences with virtual twins.
On the subject of language development, it has been fascinating to see both Brock and Milana switch their primary language so quickly.Four months ago they only spoke Russian words to one another but understood a lot that was spoken to them in Russian and now they will only use English and Swiss words . They are now putting 3 to 4 words together.It is often a combination of both English and Swiss words but, it is so interesting that they do not use Russian words to speak even though still understand it. We have a couple people we know who speak to them often only in Russian and they clearly still understand it by their actions.Just interesting to see how many changes can take place in such a short amount of time.
They are certainly keeping us busy but we would not have it any other way !

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are doing so well ! Such cute little kids.

Cindy

Barb said...

They are really sweet . . . do you and your husband both speak both languages to them, or have you divided them up? . . . Our judge really grilled us on language because we are also a bilingual home.

Anonymous said...

They are just the cutest ! Love to hear what they are up to.

Linda

Anonymous said...

Hi, Found your blog through a friend of a friend. We are raising 'virtual twins'. Our daughter is 3 and our grandson is 3 also...he is just one day older than she is. Our grandson has lived with us for about a year now and I too have looked into the 'twin' factor of their behaviors. My name is Karen-
email: kdtimothy@yahoo.com
would welcome sharing information and resources for raising twins

Bri said...

Brock looks like a little Bryce in his soccer gear!

Brianna