"And, given how rapidly kids cognitively develop, the tells kids might actually have at one point may be completely different a few months later. For me, there is an actual upside to admitting that I can't tell when kids are lying to me. It's changed the way I handle kids tattling and arguing. Occasionally when I'm tutoring kids, a pencil will go flying through the air, or the boys will suddenly be tussling over a book or game. In the past, I'd have listened to the "He started it ... No way! It was him!", and I'd have tried to sleuth out which kid was telling the truth. And then the kid "in the wrong" would get pulled to the side for a talking-to about throwing things and/or lying about it. Now I realize that unless I saw something happen or a kid admits his own wrongdoing that I can't be sure which kid's lying. And the better thing to do is put my inner Nancy Drew aside and go straight to how to best fix the aftermath, and prevent the problem from recurring." cont on link.. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurt...ie-detection-what-works-and-what-doesn-t.aspx
Heh...my kids do that. I just punish them both. They've quickly figured out that they don't want to be in a squabble and the fighting has stopped.
Oh look, another scientist discovering that we're human beings. That's the education system at its finest for you.