Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Multiples

Just curious-- are there many here with multiples? How do gifted issues come into play in your household?

In conversation recently, I realized I know of at least a half dozen sets of twins and triplets with some combination of gifted/2e. (Come to think of it, all of the 2e kids I know have gifted siblings.)
Thoughts?

I have twin boys, aged 10. One is PG, the other is HG/2E. All the twins I know are very similar to each other and my boys are different academically and socially. They're fraternal, so that's to be expected, but my boys are so different, when we say they're twins people literally don't believe us.

What's the breakdown of 2E with twins you know? Just one, or both?

Almost universally the split seems to be one 2e, one somewhere between highly and profoundly gifted (with the possible exception of my son's friends, one of whom is gifted and his brother ADHD-- mom declined to have Twin 2 tested for gifted because of the ADHD but I suspect he's up there somewhere).
With one of the triplet sets, all three sibs are 2e; the other set is 2e, 2e, and "plain old" gifted.
Oddly, all four of mine (fraternal girls, now adult, and fraternal b/g teens) scored within two standard deviations of one another, though youngest dd's WISC-R score includes a pretty hefty verbal suppression. She's my alphabet-soup-diagnosis kid.

This is my mom guilt, and purely anecdotal, but I think the high number of 2E is the result of twins being born early. I went to 37 1/2 weeks, but now I'm reading that's still "early." My 2E twin was 1 1/2 lbs smaller than his PG brother (although still 5 lb 10 oz, so a decent size for a twin), and I think the lower birth weight plus the early delivery has something to do with his dyslexia. On the other hand, he was soooo far ahead of the curve as an infant and baby-- he was incredibly social very early, walked at 8 months, talked early, so it was a big surprise when he started lagging behind in reading.

I have identical twin boys who are just turning 6 at the end of next month. We have yet to officially test them (working on that this year) but I suspect they will fall near their older PG brother. However even being identical and academically ahead going into 1st grade, one is an extrovert and loved by all classmates and varying aged children and the other is an introvert and while he gets along with everyone is content to be alone in a social setting or attached to his brothers side. Neither are 2E and older brother while I believe he has touches of inattentiveADHD, hasn't been given a 2e diagnosis throughout his years testing in various places to see how he "ticks" so to speak. The twins were not premature though so they don't fall in a high risk category like the majority of multiples (they refused to come out on their own and had to be evicted at just about 39 weeks)

My 2e son (singleton) was born at 37 1/2 weeks. It was a planned c section - his due date fell near a holiday so they pushed it back a little earlier (mostly because he was big - 8' 15" at birth, 2 1/2 weeks early).

Anyway. I've often wondered what a difference those last 2 1/2 weeks would have made... (other than letting him get even bigger - good grief)

I have gifted b/g twins, 12 yo. Dd presented as gifted much earlier (for example, reading by her 2nd birthday, vs. 3.5yo for her brother) and more extremely, but both are stand outs in their grade at school (250 kids/grade). Neither is 2E now, but dd had an IEP for speech in 2nd-4th grade, and I feel confident we could get an ADHD diagnosis for ds if we pursued it. (We don't pursue it in part because his challenges with focus and organization are a source of stress only for parents and teachers, and not for him.)

When they were in 2nd grade, the school threw out the option of a full grade skip for dd, but we declined in part because of the twin factor.

We think having gifted twins is a wonderful thing - they've had in each other like-minded buddies since birth!

I've wondered if that's related. My older twins were fullterm and huge (39.5 weeks, 8 lbs each); the younger two were 33 weekers-- despite that, one was still >2500 grams (yes, I grow 'em big). All four are gifted, but the one under 2500 grams is my 2e kid.

I have a boy/girl pair but neither has a claim to the 2E label. However. DS, who may be the brighter twin, actually have had some 2E type symptoms. At age 6, when he was already able to read Harry Potter both fluently and independently, he still had some problems with letter orientation (b versus d, p versus q, etc.). It boggled my mind that he was able to speed read with great comprehension while having such difficulties. That slowy got better and I don't think he has that problem anymore. However, he still struggles with differentiating between left and right despite extensive and persistent efforts to help him compensate. His handwriting is horrible but the OT who assessed him felt that it was due to his greater mental ability and his speed.

I have this theory that there may be more 2E twins due to prematurity and low birth weight and more difficult prenatal environments (sharing, crowding, etc.). It also appears that naturally conceived twins have lower incidence of problems. My twins were conceived naturally and delivered without surgical intervention at 38 weeks so not exactly typical. I don't remember the stats now but most multiple births are the result of artificial insemination and other procedures due to infertility, which is why mulitple births are so common now as compare to 30 years ago.

I have identical 3 year old girls. My oldest is 4 and has been tested EG and my little ones show signs too. Interestingly enough, one of them shows much more outward intelligence than the other one so I'm nervous that this will become an issue in the future. My girls were born at 29 weeks (2 lbs and 2 lbs 11 oz) and one had IUGR and was always a lot smaller than her sister. We'll see what happens!