If regular siblings can be prone to competitiveness, twins can be trusted to take the concept to a whole other level. Twins will usually go to the same school, share some of the same teachers, and sit the same exams. All things considered, it can be very hard to help teach them when their abilities vary.
Here are just a few tips to help make things easier.
Separate Their Learning
As a parent of twins, and perhaps other children besides, you probably won’t have a whole heap of spare time on your hands. It’s likely that you’ll need to help teach both children at once, but this can directly encourage competitiveness. Try teaching different subjects at different times; you can help one child with maths while the other concentrates on their English work, then leave the other to work on their maths while you read over the other’s work.
Let Them Work Together
It’s a lot harder to be competitive when you’re in the same team, so try making your children work together. This won’t be possible if they are doing homework since you don’t want them bringing in the same answers, but you can find interactive games online that allow your kids to team up. Try using different games that complement the varying abilities of each child. You might find that one twin is better at working with words while the other is better at spatial problems and pattern recognition; if you find a word game that uses both skills, they’ll be able to work effectively as a team. In fact, they could even end up teaching each other a thing or two.
Praise Equally
If one child isn’t as good at grasping a particular topic, it can be tempting to offer them more praise than the other twin in order to provide encouragement. However, this will only make the twin who is excelling feel left out, so make sure you don’t diminish their achievements. Individual praise is great, but you should also praise both children equally for getting through their work and giving it their best shot. Performance-based praise is only going to give rise to competitiveness, so keep the focus on effort.