Twin and triplet psychology: a professional guide to working with multiples.

This book examines the relationship between twins and triplets before and after birth and as they mature. It is concise, well referenced and easy to read. As the title suggests, the information presented will be of interest to any professional groups involved in the direct care or advisory and support roles of twins and triplets throughout their stages of development. It is a multi-author work but the development of the book flows logically, whilst each chapter stands alone for those with specific needs or interests. As a mother of twins, I particularly appreciated the very comprehensive and well appended chapter on meeting educational needs of pre-school and primary school multiples. This chapter contains a very useful parent/ teacher questionnaire that may be reproduced and it highlights some of the major research findings related to the education of twins and triplets. There has been a rapid rise in the number of twins and higher multiples (one child in 38 is a twin). Professor Hay's research on adolescence and secondary schooling reveals issues around academic achievement, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, stereotyping, autonomy competition and co-operation. The overriding messages are about the social and emotional development of twins and triplets and how this effects progress in school. There is a very clearly identified need for parents and professionals to work together at understanding, managing and supporting children through their education. The chapter on language development reiterates the interest that psychologists have always had in the special characteristics of language development in twins. It illustrates four main patterns of twin speech presentation through short case studies, and concludes that clinicians and parents need to be aware of the greater risks of language development in twins. Careful and detailed observation assessment is vital in order to determine factors that are responsible for language difficulty. In particular, this chapter highlights the complexity of diagnosis for those with clinical responsibility for language difficulties of twins. This book succeeds in offering some new insights into the psychology of multiples, at the same time as consolidating social and psychological factors and research accumulated by leading professionals on the subject of how multiples differ from singletons in their needs. The writing is clear and leaves the reader with an increased awareness of facts and practice requirements. It is by far the best book I have read on this subject.