hi all
I'm so glad I have found this forum. I am searching for stories (negative or positive) about gifted twins. My DD's are 6 yrs and in Kindergarten and I've just completed WISC IV with matching scores of 138. My girls are fraternal and their profiles were very similar. On paper they appear identical, their schoolwork is very hard to differentiate (well I can but others would be challenged if their name wasn't on the top) yet their personalities are worlds apart. They are currently in the same class and the best fo friends. Whilst on one hand the WISC scores were pleasing I am just filled with dread for the future and how it will pan out. I'd just love to hear stories about other gifted twins. I just want them to stay how they are at the moment (happy, carefree and the best of buddies). I've been reading many of your stories and you all sound so blessed and proud of your little ones it is just a pleasure to read.

I have hg+ twins, and really it is a wonderful thing. Dd scores a bit higher than ds, but they are both outliers. They are 10 yo, in 5th grade and best of friends. They always have an intellectual peer because they have one another. I think that having one another has helped spare them from some of the challenges families who post here have had with schools. Their twinness gives them a security in their identity that is hard to describe. Their school is an urban one with a majority of low income families and all that entails. The school has an inclusive, special-needs-R-us sort of attitude (although we have butted heads with a principal who understands giftedness but doesn't believe in acceleration). We have resisted whole-grade acceleration to keep them together in this school through 5th, and their teacher promises to ensure they finish middle school math (in-class differentiation) by the end of the school year.

We face some tough decisions re: middle school option next year, though...

But for now, they are totally happy, care-free and best-of-buddies. Let me know if you have any questions.

I've observed closely 2 sets of twins. The both do seem to have that special twin security that AmyLou mentions.

In classrooms sometimes schools will 'stock the pond' by putting several strong Math students or several strong Reading students together so that the teachers don't have to work so hard to differentiate the material. This is called 'cluster grouping' and it works well.

I think that gifted twins is a 'home cluster group' that seems to work very well, as does a strong family of gifted siblings.

One set of gifted girl twins I know were actually able to help each other 'differentiate' the classroom material because of their competitive drive to challenge each other. They don't overtly compete with each other, but they helped create a frame of reference for each other of what a person 'ought' to be able to accomplish. I think that lots of the sad stories here stem from never having a realistic frame of reference. I grew up comparing myself to characters in books, and guess what? I always fell short! I had classmates, but they didn't provide a frame of reference that I found credible. My next younger brother was 3 years younger, and yet I felt that beating him a board games or card games was a total victory. If my classmates and I had played any game like that, I would have felt a hollow victory.

Good luck and enjoy your twin DDs!
Grinity

wow thankyou all for your replies

I am really finding the "realistic frame of reference" such a helpful insight. One of my concerns has been whether to keep them in the same classroom or to separate them at some stage (there are no reasons to separate them at all--> they make individual friends, never fight and don't cheat/copy/trick)and this has certainly been insightful knowing that clustering them may have many benefits. At times I am concerned they are lumped together as a single entity (they look awfully alike and many of the specialist teachers who only see them once a week can't tell them apart and some children havent worked it out either despite being in their classroom all year!) but it is nice to know that clustering has benefits too. Our teacher has done some extension work this year (after some strong discussions from me) and we did have one episode where she set the benchmark too high and they both "failed" the task and I can see now that we possibly had no negative impact from that because both witnessed each other confused and perplexed and so didnt really care that they couldnt master it. I havent yet told our school the results but trying to muster the words for that discussion--> I think I need to sort out first how I see the future (things like same classroom v separate, same subject acceleration or different etc etc)

thanks again I'm sure I will have many more questions to follow as I try and sort through this.

Hi all pink,
Sorry I can't help with the twins tested gifted yet - my identical DDs are just coming up to two but given their brother has tested HG+ and they're hitting all his milestones it seems increasingly likely so I'm reading your posts with interest.

It's frustrating how little there is about gifted twins - studies are mostly about the correlation of scores rather than what might be the unique challenges of parenting gifted twins. And any general literature on twins tends to focus more on the possible learning delays that twins may face.

On the issue of separation at school the following link may assist http://www.twinsandmultiples.org/school/sy2.cfm

I also noticed from your testing thread that there are still some doubts if they're fraternal or identical even though they're very different and that(perhaps)you're worried things are pointing more to idents. Appologies if I'm reading too much into what you've said. I was sure my girls were fraternal when I was pregnant, everything pointed that way, including separate placentas. I was so pleased they wouldn't be identical. When they were born we had no trouble telling them apart though they looked similar - definitely fraternal we decided. We ended up having genetic testing because of a medical issue (and we were curious) and were shocked when it came back as identical. They have such different personalities - one introvert, one extrovert, one hard worker, one seemingly a coaster. I think finding out they were identical, after I knew they were very different made it much easier for me to accept. Though maybe I'll change my mind again if they get to school and people start treating them as a single unit!

thanks freya
yes there is some medical doubt (both girls, same blood groups, same colourings, same medical issues, and now same IQ's) but we have no doubt (but are aware we should dna test to be sure and I've now lost confidence on my stance given their IQ's were now identical). Like you, I have read so much research on twins having delayed development that I had previously resigned myself that we would have issues (now it seems we have issues at the other end of the spectrum).
great to hear from you and thanks for the link

We know so little about fetal development and genetics.

Most twins don't make it - one takes over. I think the literature says only 15% make it.

No one knows how many sets of twins are really Chimeras or how many individuals are really Chimeras. A Chimera is one person who comes from two fertilized eggs whereas identical twins come from one fertilized egg. Right now most genetic testing does not look at many sites on a person.

They are also finding out there are a lot of the mom's and grandmom's and great-grandmom's cells are floating around in kids, too. It is called Microchimerism for now.

it is really scary when you read that stuff, we had one low birth wieght bub and one barely in the normal range and I read a lot about developmental delay and both girls were quite delayed with all their weight and motor milestones. I had prepared myself for things like cerebral palsy (one twin got resussed twice in the first week of life) and then low and behold once they started talking we blitzed all academic milestones. It was quite hard for me to switch modes from thinking I would have to fight for them to keep up with their peers to realising their peers are indeed not the age matched peers but other children a little older.

there are only a few sets of twins in our whole school and one set definitely has developmental delay issues so we don't really have any twin peers at all. It seems hard enough to parent two gifted kids but there are added challenges when they are both in the same class and look very similar, have the same parents and yet need to be treated differently. Even having a parent-teacher interview is always me saying ....so lets talk about x and then the conversation always strays to involve both girls and I have to redirect it back to "lets just talk about x" but of course the teacher has done most tasks with both girls at the same time (she knows who is who but I think she struggles to remember which did what well or poorly each time when the results would have been very similar)

IMO, this may be a good reason to consider separate classrooms. My twins have been in separate classrooms since 3 y.o. (in a Montessori school that has multi-age classrooms and does not allow any siblings in the same classroom), and while this is just our anecdotal experience, we have been very happy with this aspect of their education, though I don't have time to go into detail at the moment. They each have quite the unique strengths and weaknesses, and their teachers focus only on them (the teachers really know nothing about the other twin sibling). In fact, I engage in far more unwarranted comparison of the two than the school does

These girls were always in different classrooms, but there school seems to have 3 or 4 projects per year that are 'famous' and every Xth graders does. I don't think that the children have to be in the same classroom to get the home cluster advantage - but they do to get the school cluster advantage.

I'll say that lots of social interaction is very superficial, and being twins may give your daughters 'an excuse' for being gifted. Once people can say "Oh, they probably study together" then there is less resentment about the giftedness. In my experience, once a child is different in some noticible way, they seem to be forgiven for being different in other ways.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

With Mr W, DW had a lot of risk factors. We were prepared for the worst. We were told he could come any day after the 26th week. Every day after that week we exhaled a bit more.

We just hoped for a healthy kid.

He was still 5 weeks early and only 5 pounds but had an apgar of 9. He smiled at us the first week and it has been off to the races ever since.

At 2y8mos he makes up his own songs and does his own jazzy/rap riffs on the several dozen songs he knows. Just last night he did "Home on the Range." in presto and belted out a jazzy-rap version of "Real Gone."

Sorry for such a late reply, I'm just seeing the thread now.

I have 8 yr old identical twins, both tested HG. Their scores and profiles from testing are remarkably similar. They are best of friends, but have some difference in their choice of other friends. They are competitive with each other, but unfortunately not in a good way. One continually tries to do better than the other, who then reacts by backing off and pretending disinterest. On the other hand, they always have someone to talk about their passions with, and who understands them completely.

They were in the same kindergarten class. There was only one class of their program, so no issues there. They did very well. I liked hearing them talk about their class when they thought I wasn't listening.

In first grade they had new city, new school, new baby sister and a Dad who was deploying. They did well together in K, so I asked them to be in the same class. This went well for a few months but then the teacher and I both wished they had been separated. They spent all their free time being clowns and distracting the other students.

They were separated in second grade and it was really nice to see them bloom separately. The only down-side was that there is only one other boy who shares their intellectual interests, and therefor only one of my sons had a peer in class. The boys still play together most recess and lunch periods. The program only had 2 classes, so they also saw each other every day when the two classes were combined for gym and music. They spent their free time reading or sometimes doing projects independantly.

This year, grade 3, the maximum class size went up, and there is once again only one class of their program, so they are together again.

A PP mentioned the issue of parent-teacher conferences. It isn't just the teacher that tends to flip back and forth between children, rather than focusing on one at a time. I am guilty too. When they are separated the teacher is never unsure of which child said or did something and neither of us are as tempted to generalize. When they are together it is easy to group them together. Both family and teachers have encountered situations when we are unsure of which of them said or did something.

Another person mentioned the issue of ease of differentiation within the classroom. It has also occurred to me that the more children, even siblings, in a class at the same level, the easier it should be for a teacher to differentiate. It makes sense to me, although it certainly isn't the only factor to consider. My experience so far has been that the teachers think it is a less important factor than I think it is, but we all agree that so far it has been moot, so I haven't explored the issue further.

While it is certainly easier for me to have them in the same class, and they like it, I do wish that they had another year apart to help gain some confidence on their own. IMO, the importance of this depends somewhat on the family lifestyle (whether there are activities they do separately at home, etc.) and on personality. They need to be confident on their own, but separate classes are not the only means to achieve this.