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Do twins and singleborn children have the same reading problems?

This is a vital question. If the problems are different, then the interventions used with singleborn children may not be appropriate for twins. One does have to be cautious in generalising as many multiples will have just the same problems as reading-disabled singletons and what works for one will work just as well for the others. Searching for an intervention tailored to multiples may be quite unnecessary.

However in the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Survey, what distinguished the twin boys with inadequate literacy skills from singeborns who also had problems was that the twin boys were much more likely:

(i) to have or to have had speech problems.
(ii) to have spelling as well as reading problems
(iii) to have reading reversals where "b" is read as "d", "p" as "q" etc.
(iv) to have problems in numeracy as well as literacy.

Fairly similar patterns were found in the girls except that those with difficulties also often lacked motivation. It was not so much that they could not do a problem, but that they did not try it or gave-up very readily.

Those twins who were delayed in their reading were often a lot more careless in their work. Thus the twins with reading problems were much more likely to tell the time incorrectly off a clockface or to make mistakes in subtraction of two-digit numbers. Any specific remediation needs to be directed first to getting them to approach problems more carefully. Only once this basic problem has been resolved, is it appropriate to plan anything more specific about reading.

In intervention, it is important to consider what does not cause reading disabilities in multiples. Some people believe that reading problems are closely related to underdeveloped lateralisation and the use of both rather than just one preferred hand. Given multiples often are left-handed or are mirror-image with one right- and one left-handed, it would seem reasonable to blame reading problems in twins on unusual handedness. But very detailed studies in Australia have found no relationship between handedness and reading in the great majority of multiples. This is not to deny there may be a small group where lateralization may be an issue and where work with lateralization may help.