Communicative development in twins with discordant histories of recurrent otitis media

The communicative abilities of six sets of same-sex, dizygotic twins (CAs 2;1-4;1) were examined. In each dyad, one sibling had a strong positive history of recurrent otitis media (ROM), while the other twin had a negative or minimal history of ROM. Standardized test performance and spontaneous speech and language abilities were examined. Results suggest that although a history of ROM is associated with lowered receptive vocabulary scores in these dyads, no consistent effects of ROM could be detected in expressive speech and language tasks. In two dyads, the ROM-positive twin did score lower on articulation and language measures; however, in two dyads, children with equivalent histories of ROM outscored their ROM-negative siblings. In the remaining dyads, little difference was observed between the siblings on the measures we used. We suggest that the effects of ROM on communicative development are complex and subtle, and that control of home and day care environment may minimize some of the previously documented associations between ROM and speech-language development.