Raising Twins

Raising Twins guides you through the physical, emotional, and cognitive developmental differences and challenges specific to twins. Straightforward and reassuring, this book addresses the key issues that impact twins from babyhood all the way through adolescence: * Sharing and comparisons * Competition and rivalry * The "secret language" of twins * The good twin/bad twin myth * Teen-specific issues like dating and applying for college * And much more including lively, candid discussions with twins and their parents

""Raising Twins" offers a rich blend of practical guidance, personal narrative and illustrative cases that parents raising multiple birth children and teens need to know. The virtual explosion in birth rates of twins, triplets and quadruplets makes the need for this information greater than ever before. Raising Twins will be welcomed by the many mothers and fathers confronting the countless challenges lying ahead."-- Nancy L. Segal, Ph.D., professor of psychology, California State University, Fullerton and author of "Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior""The "Twin Talk" interviews in "Raising Twins" provide priceless, rare opportunities for parents to truly understand twins, as individuals and as multiples."-- Barbara C. Unell, coauthor of "The Eight Seasons of Parenthood" and founder of "Twins" Magazine""Raising Twins" provides useful, easy-to-understand information and practical guidance that will help parents face the joys and challenges that come with raising multiples."-- Alan H. Klein, M.D., coauthor of "Twins! Pregnancy, Birth and the First Year of Life" and" Caring for Your Premature Baby"""Raising Twins" is a 'must have' for parents of twins. The educational and statistical information was insightful and blended perfectly with personal conversations with the twins and parents. All readers will get a great insight into the minds of twins and how we envision our own selves as twins."-- Debra and Lisa Ganz, authors of "The Book of Twins: A Celebration in Words and Pictures" and owners of Twins Restaurant, NYC. With twin and multiple births "skyrocketing" (the number of twin births in the U.S. rose 52 % from 1980 to 1997, according to the authors), thisunusual parenting guide is timely. Much of the parenting literature on twins concentrates on pregnancy and infancy, but Pearlman, a twin herself as well as a family therapist, and coauthor Ganon (Twins!) have expanded the discussion of twinship to cover the early school years and adolescence. While some of the text also applies to the development of "singletons, " the authors emphasize characteristics specific to twins, such as the "secret language" twins often share and how their unique bond begins. They also urge parents to help twins establish and maintain separate identities, advising against dressing twins alike and encouraging parents to spend time alone with each child. School issues--for instance, whether to keep twins in the same class--are also discussed. Candid interviews with twins of various ages are interspersed throughout This will be a useful resource for parents who want to look beyond infancy at the singular experience of raising twins from birth to early adulthood. -- "Publishers Weekly"

Eileen M. Pearlman, Ph.D., an identical twin, is a licensed marriage, family, and child therapist who also teaches and lectures nationally and internationally on multiple birth issues. She is the director of Twinsight, which provides counseling, workshops, and seminars to multiples and their families, and lives in Los Angeles. Jill Alison Ganon is a writer and editor residing in Los Angeles.