Speech Therapy for Twirlese

Scarlett's been into watching Despicable Me lately.  Jake realized that the twirls are little Minions.  They are funny and they talk a lot - but no one can understand them except for each other.  Yep, just like the minions.

I think I've mentioned before that they have their own language: Twirlese.  It's darling, I'll admit.  But it's also very frustrating for everyone involved.  They will come up to me and tell me a long sentence, since I don't understand they get mad and since all our patience is worn thin, their tempers immediately escalate to full-on temper tantrums.

I kept thinking that it was in my head and I just was feeling burnt out.  But Jake stayed home from work one day when I was sick and the girls were just screaming all day for him (like they do for me).  Jake had sympathy for my complaints before, but after that day he had empathy.  I looked online at speech problems, but most of the resources are for "delayed speech" issues.  Not many of them talk about "created their own language with their identical twin" issues.

We decided to get them evaluated and see if we could begin doing speech therapy with them.  I called my pediatrician and she faxed a prescription over to the speech place.  I made appointments for their evaluations when my mom was in town visiting.

We walked into the speech place and the two therapists were standing in the lobby waiting for us.  They came over to me and said "This must be Jaide and Siena.  We can tell cause of the matching clothes and matching faces."  haha!  They said they were excited to work with identical twins who have their own language!

The first part of the evaluation everyone was in a room together.  All 3 girls played (Grammy supervised) while the therapists asked me many questions about both girls.  We talked about the words they use regularly that we understand:

rainbow, fish, nose, all done, Mom, Dad, Scarlett, Jaide, Siena, uh oh, dog, wawa (water), star, go, apple, please, ya, *animal noises: dog, monkey, duck, cow, etc...*

Also, I told them how they will say the same sounds for things.  Like I grabbed an orange out of the fridge and held it up and they both yelled "ma-ha!"  Then they each took a twirl into a separate room to evaluate them 1-on-1.  I went to the lobby with Grammy and Scarlett.  After like 5 min I decided to go back cause I could still hear screaming.  Siena was fine, but Jaide was ticked off.  So for her evaluation she sat on my lap.  She was pretty mad at both of us though, and got upset every time I wasn't touching her (afraid I was going to leave again).

She had Jaide follow simple commands (that I had to tell her cause she just glared at the therapist).  Then we looked through a picture book and I told Jaide to "point to the spoon" which she did.  Next I would ask her "what's that?" in which Jaide would reply with some word that didn't sound like anything recognizable.  She did other things too, like play different games, sort objects, repeat sounds, and make animal sounds.

After their evaluations we went in the lobby.  When the twirls saw each other, they ran over and gave their twin sister a huge hug!!!  Oh my goodness!!!!!  SO SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!

The therapists came a few min later to discuss preliminary results.  They agree that they do have their own "language" and they are behind in speaking English words.  But they both understand a lot more than they can express.  It was so validating to hear professionals concur with my frustrations.

We just got the final reports in the mail.  They go into detail about their assessments.  They have "Moderate, mixed receptive and expressive language disorder."  Unfortunately, this diagnosis is not covered by our insurance.  I would really have considered going and just paying out of pocket, but THANKFULLY in the past two weeks they have really started talking more.  Usually we go weeks before understanding a new vocabulary word, now there are new words added several times a week.  They still are behind for their age, but it's starting to click.  I think we are going to hold off for now.  Then after we get back from Utah we'll reevaluate and see if we need to start up therapy.

Have you ever seen The Miracle Worker (yr 2000)?  It's the story about Helen Keller's childhood.  The movie really impacted me - so emotional.  Well these past few months I would tell Jake that I just wanted our girls to have their "water" moment.  Where they finally understood that they could speak our language.  I am grateful that my girls have their hearing and vision.  I know my problems with their speech don't compare in the slightest to Helen Keller, but I can understand why she was so frustrated and misbehaved.  Without language and understanding her world was so lonely and limited.  I think the movie captures her story so beautifully.  Here's the clip of the "water" moment if you feel like sobbing:

Well, I really feel like the twirls had their "water" moment.  Maybe it's when my mom was here, trying new things.  Maybe just the evaluation with the speech therapists worked wonders.  Maybe they were getting it anyways and the timing just happened to be right then.  I don't know.  But I do know that it's really clicking.  They will point from one thing to another, back and forth, making me say the name of two objects over and over.  They will point to something and ask "what's that?"  It's so wonderful to finally have that mutual communication.  I love finally understanding what they're thinking.

It's weird to hear them speak - cause they will say new words that are 3 syllables or even use sentences.  Usually when kids start speaking they are using one syllables.  I guess my girls have been "talking" for a year now... it's just now we can finally understand them.  So it's just bizarre to hear complicated phrases when I'm not even used to hearing the simple sounds.  Does that make sense?  Here are some of the words/phrases that they have started using in the past month:

tickletickle, Jesus, here ya go, shoe, ball, stroller, stairs, car, cya, and then this, this!, cookie, I did it!, Scarlett go, baby, noodle, stuck, I'm stuck, there it is, weeee!!!!, circle, dip, airplane, more, what's this?, book, (sing) E-I-E-I-O, (sing) let it go, strawberry, cheese, there, stuck, where's Dad?, red, green, where'd it go, there it is!, outside, whoa whoa, etc.... 

I think that Siena talks more than Jaide.  I haven't been good about writing what twirls uses which words... but they are both talking more.  AND now when I ask them a question like "do you want a banana?" they will either say "ya/no" or nod yes or shake their head no.  They weren't doing any of that really last month.  It's like they finally realized that they can communicate back with me, and it's been amazing!

Here are some fun movies to help you cheer up after that sweet, but emotional clip from The Miracle Worker.

I have been trying to get their little language on film.  It's hard cause they will often stop speaking to each other when I come in the room - especially if I get my phone out.  They do a lot of their talking in their room in the morning or after nap time.  But when I open the door they stop talking and just cry for me to get them out.

This video is an example of organized play.  They often will talk to each other then go do something together.  It's more than just babbling - they are making a plan.  I didn't catch the beginning, but you can see that they have created a little game:

Here's a little video where they answer my questions in "twirlese".

This video is out of focus, but it's an example of own they like to play "ticka ticka tickatickatickaticka" (aka tickle) 

This is just a random video that Scarlett took (with my help) of the twirls playing hide and seek.  They show some organized play and a little twirlese.  And it's just cute.

Here are their full evaluations from speech therapy.  I don't expect you to read through them, I'm just including them cause I know that a few of you (mom) will want the full report!  :-)

Jaide's Evaluation:

Siena's Evaluation: