Twins Are Smart!

I am relieved and surprised by today's report in USA Today.

Apparently, previous studies of twins and singletons showed that twins lagged behind singletons by 5 to 6 IQ points at the age of six. Of course, I never knew this but now that I do I wouldn't have believed it if I had. Our pediatrician told us that twins typically lag behind singletons because twins are usually born at an earlier gestational age making them weeks or even months younger than their singleton counterparts but that all evens out by about third grade.

Well, apparently our pediatrician is right because a recent study performed in the Netherlands, the results of which are published in the current issue of the Intelligence journal, concludes that any IQ differences that were previously thought to exist disappear by the time children reach the age of 12 years old.

Wow, now I hope you can relax.