Language skills are highly heritable , according to a macro study published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research .
To reach this conclusion, researchers have followed 473 pairs of identical or monozygotic twins (with the same DNA) and twins or dizygotic (who share 50% of the genetic material).
It was known before that siblings who are born in the same birth are more likely to suffer from language delay , but now they have found that twins experience more difficulties with vocabulary, word combinations and grammar (47% of cases) than twins (31%).
That is, genes play an important role . According to experts, these results help to dismantle the idea that the lack of care by mothers of twins or twins for their babies – they have to divide the efforts – causes problems in language acquisition.
Apart from genetic predisposition, the authors of the study also believe that problems in childbirth, more common in both monozygotic and dizygotic twin brothers, may influence the delay.
