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Achievement and Progress

There is little evidence that in general multiples are of any lower intelligence than singleborn children, although slightly higher numbers of multiples may experience learning difficulties. Back in the days of the 11+ standard testing in British schools, twins on average did not do as well, except in the unfortunate case where their cotwin had died. This led to the idea that there was something about the "twin situation" in such areas as social interactions and language development which contributed to delays in verbal intelligence. (Psychologists typically identify at least two components of intelligence. The first is concerned with language and the second is a non-verbal one assessed by puzzles and mazes which do not involved language to the same extent.). However, this effect is really quite small, and many multiples are performing according to expectations and therefore this is not an issue for most families. In fact it is important to emphasise when multiples do really well to dispel any myths. With regard to school performance, there are access to national data in Australia and the UK as discussed in the next section