This book provides a holistic overview of what leads to success in foreign language learning at an early age and deepens our understanding of early foreign language learning. The studies use an array of methodological approaches to research learners aged between three and ten, as well as their parents and teachers, in instructional, minimal-input…

Multimethod assessments of temperament were obtained from 89 twins at 18 and 24 months of age. Ratings of subject reaction to restraint and parent ratings of temperament plus coordination of these temperament dimensions with analogous dimensions obtained at 12 months provided evidence of stability of temperament across six-month intervals during…

Among a group of 103 children with a mean age of eight years, full-scale IQ correlation was significantly higher for monozygotic than dizygotic pairs. Monozygotic pairs also showed significantly greater concordance for subtest profile than dizygotic pairs. The usefulness of profile analysis is examined, and directions for future research are…

Data analysis of 134 twin pairs from the Colorado Reading Project found that approximately 40 percent of the deficit observed in disabled readers is because of genetic factors, 35 percent because of environmental influences shared by twin pairs, and 25 percent because of environmental factors unique to the individual and/or error variance.…

Data showed that the majority of low-birth-weight twins and singletons had secure attachments, indicating that the propensity to form a secure attachment is a very robust phenomenon. Twinship did not affect infants' attachment classification. Contrary to the prediction that mothers in the insecure group would consistently obtain lowest ratings,…

Since the time of Galton, high correlations have been noted in the IQ levels of identical twins, with relationships for twins reared in different families being only slightly lower than for twins reared together. This evidence has been held to demonstrate that intellectual differences among individuals and among groups are largely determined by…

Comparison of twins (40 identical and 23 fraternal) for mathematics deficits (MD), in which at least one member had a mathematics disability, found evidence for a significant genetic etiology. However, tests for the differential etiology of MD as a function of reading performance level were nonsignificant. (Author/DB)

Fifty-seven same-sex twin sets (32 monozygotic and 25 dizygotic) were examined for concordance of speech and language disorders. Monozygotic twins had a higher concordance than dizygotic twins and also were more similar in the types of disorders they presented than dizygotic twins. Positive family histories were reported for both groups.…

This report documents phonological changes in a pair of identical twin boys diagnosed as language delayed. The boys were evaluated four times between the ages of three and four. Speech samples were analyzed for phonetic inventories, phonological process use, and syllabic shapes. Observed changes in their speech generally followed normal…

Data from 148 identical and 111 fraternal twin pairs in which at least 1 member had a reading disability were statistically analyzed. Results suggest that genetic and shared-environment influences both contribute to the observed covariance between reading and mathematical deficits. (Author/DB)

A path model of genetic and family environmental transmission was fitted to published twin correlations and to general cognitive ability data from adoptive and nonadoptive families in which children were tested yearly through the fourth year. Longitudinal genetic correlations from infancy to adulthood were modeled explicitly, as were effects of…

A study involving 55 children with a language impairment and 76 with normal language investigated the heritability of auditory processing impairment in same-sex twins (ages 7 to 13, selected from a sample of 37 pairs). Although correlations between co-twins were high, lack of significant difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins suggested…

Reviews current research on a woman's chances of bearing twins and the genetic relationship, prenatal competition, and personality similarities between twins. In addition, the nature/nurture controversy is discussed in terms of evidence from studies of identical twins reared apart. Future studies are suggested to discover the ways twinning might…

The communicative abilities of six sets of same-sex, preschool dizygotic twins were examined. In each dyad, one sibling had a strong history of recurrent otitis media (ROM) but the other twin did not. History of ROM was associated with lowered receptive vocabulary, with no consistent effects detected in expressive speech and language tasks.…

Investigates differences in the language learning environments of six twin pairs and 12 singleton toddlers (all firstborn) with special reference to pragamatic factors that might be expected to differ in dyadic and triadic interactive situations. (HOD)