PURPOSE: Families with monozygotic twin children have some typical practices which begin in early pregnancy and persist during the childhood, including wearing the same clothes and colors, choosing phonetically similar names and offering the same food and sleeping patterns. The purpose of this study was to follow-up, prospectively, one family with identical twins, analyzing the influence of assumptions and social practices expressed in their discourse on the language development and the construction process of each child's identity, from the diagnosis of monozygotic twin pregnancy. METHODS: The study is based on the naturalist/observational approach, the historic-cultural perspective and the indiciary paradigm. Eight interviews were video recorded every three months since the diagnosis of identical twin pregnancy in one family, and information regarding the following categories were analyzed: the announcement of pregnancy, choice of names, clothes, family interaction, general routine, language and identity of each child. RESULTS: All analyzed categories were referred by the family during the interviews, and revealed their difficulty in assimilating the presence of two different children, who end up being seen as one child. CONCLUSION: The social aspects that come along with the similarities of monozygotic twins are remarkable enough to overcome and change its influence on these children's processes of language and identity development. The Speech-Language Pathology has an important role to support these families in the context of their beliefs and values, so that the intervention, when necessary, is effective.
Twinning, monozygotic; Language; Family relations; Habits; Social values; Child guidance