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Differences in puberty

Mary Rosambeau speaks of a pair of twin girls where one began her periods over three years before the other. While this is the normal range of variation across the population, it is obviously more difficult for multiples. You are not just considering your maturation relative to the rest of the class, but relative to your twin or higher multiple. We hav relative to the rest of the class, but relative to your twin or higher multiple. We have found that multiples are often very loyal to each other and do not like to admit differences, but the nature of physical development at adolescence may make differences difficult to deny. While the differences between boys and girls in development was mentioned in the preschool section, it becomes even more evident at adolescence.

"It has really torn my twins apart. They used to be so close. Now she is a young woman and he is still a giggly, active child. He does not notice it as much, but she says it is sooo… embarrassing to have him in the same form. We do our best at home to talk about how boys and girls develop at different rates, but the school needs to back us up. The kids do not even think the same way about the assignments they have to do and she and her friends (of course he is excluded) have much more mature ideas. I'm not sure the teachers recognise this. Yes they see the boys as being less mature than the girls. But they also see my son as being less adequate than his sister and that is not fair."