Editing Poto and Cabengo (section)

== Early circumstances ==
Both parents were employed (although later characterized by ''[[U-T San Diego|The San Diego Tribune]]'' as living on "food stamps and welfare") and spent many hours away from home. The girls were left in the care of a grandmother who met their physical needs but did not play or interact with them. The grandmother spoke only German, while the parents spoke English.<ref name="NYT" /> They had no contact with other children, seldom played outdoors, and were not sent to school.<ref>"Twins' Mysterious Speech Has Many Experts Talking", ''[[U-T San Diego|The San Diego Tribune]]'' July 22, 1977.</ref>

Their father later stated in interviews that he realized the girls had invented a language of their own, but, since their use of [[English language|English]] remained extremely rudimentary, he had decided that they were, as the doctor suggested, developmentally challenged and that it would do no good to send them to school. When he lost his job, he told a caseworker at the unemployment office about his family; the caseworker advised him to put the girls in [[speech therapy]].<ref name="WP">{{cite news | first= Cynthia | last= Gorney | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/07/17/my-sister-my-self/767d9332-552e-40f3-acc2-4afc75e1e32b/| title= My Sister, My Self | newspaper=[[Washington Post]]| date= July 17, 1979| accessdate=2020-04-30}}</ref> At the [[Rady Children's Hospital|Children's Hospital of San Diego]], in [[California]], speech therapists Ann Koeneke and Alexa Kratze discovered that Virginia and Grace had invented a complex [[idioglossia]].<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xYVKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ISMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2560%2C4809356/ ‘Retarded’ Twins’ Gibberish Really Private Language.]</ref>