not necessarily smarter but had more time spent on them by the parents during their formative years than those that came later...
Posted on 02/12/2017 5:48:11 AM PST by BenLurkin
There have been several studies finding a positive relationship between the detail a young child puts into telling a story or drawing a picture, and achievement in adulthood.
“Maybe it has something to do with a few years of undivided attention from parents”
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MY first born got only 12 months of undivided attention,I very much doubt that it had a great impact on her intelligence.
Doesn’t this study also prove that keeping the mother home raise the child increases life success?
My sister is 4 years younger than me and thinks calculus, algebra, trig, and the like is fun and simple.
I barely passed algebra.
On the other hand, I was good at reasoning long winded accounting problems. My sister would go into meltdowns.
Being the firstborn of eight, I can tell you all that there are exceptions...
Some of us who were first born children were told early on we were “the example” for our younger siblings. We were expected to use good manners, get good grades and be responsible for watching over our younger brothers and-or sisters.
The sad part of studies like this is they use statistical noise to make predictions that are used for social engineering. These small variations in intelligence & birth order may be due to any number of factors.
At my high school, the 1st born girls were better looking and higher achievers than their younger sisters.
IQ is highly correlated with income
bull ....
not necessarily smarter but had more time spent on them by the parents during their formative years than those that came later...
Damnit
My sister who is 2.5 years younger than me used to sit behind me at home when my mom was using flashcards to help me leasrn my letters in first grade. My sister would call them out before me. I used to get furious. :-)
This belief is why the first born was the first in line to be king and we all know how well that turned out...
I was born near the middle of a line of nine children. Every single one of us is/was pretty smart, but there seems to be no correlation between birth order and level of intelligence. Also, formal schooling performance is varied throughout the strata.
Both of my parents were very bright, both were voracious readers, and my mother talked to us a lot. Oh, and none of us attended school before grade 1.
You know why this is true? Age of the parents. My grandmother was a 25 year old farm wife with a young healthy husband when my mother was born. She was in her 40, with a sick husband and two jobs when my youngest uncle was born. My mother was a little girl with no indoor plumbing, a one room school house and the second car was a mule or your own feet because her dad was working with the truck. When her brother was born, they lived in town and he had no farm chores. Everyone lavished attention on him because nobody wanted him to have it hard like they did. So, he grew up as charming brat who made horrible choices but was so cute the whole family bailed out over and over again.
Now, now, zerosix. 33% of the world’s most important inventions and science originated in Scotland...a tiny place that could fit into Texas 3 times with more of Texas left over. Scots are not referred to as “canny Scots” for nothing. Most of the population of America at the time of the Revolutionary War was Scotch/Irish. Scots have a few tiny failings, but being dumb isn’t one of them.
I think it is more nurture than nature.
If ALL first born were more intelligent, then most definitely it's nature over nurture.
I've watched older kids in families, and often times those kids have a "bossy" attitude. Being a leader isn't about being the smartest, it's about attitude and drive.
The kid who is the leader in the house among his siblings (peers), will take those tendencys out into the world with them. Likewise, a child who was following, will have a tendancy to follow when they are out of the house.
This dynamic seems break down when there is an aggression between siblings. I have seen younger siblings who bucked their older siblings "authority", who later in life are as much or more so a leader than the older sibling.
Also, parents with 3 or more kids can tell you, that each of their kids, though coming from same parents, can have different personality traits. These traits can be displayed at the youngest of ages. They don't suddenly manifest themselves when a child is 2.
People are wired up a certain way in the womb, then once they are out, environment takes over.
Yeah I heard this many yrs ago too. Not true.
Their 3rd child had a VERY independent streak. Not rebellious, just independent.
All the kids had to hold an adults hand when we were walking somewhere. Nathaniel had an explorers heart and would often forget to hold on and start marching off at his own pace. Not running away or anything. Just following his own interest.
I let him go and just followed close behind. His walking had "ATTITUDE" that I laughed at.
When I mentioned my observations to his parents, they laughed. They and their parents noticed and commented about this with Nathaniel.
He was about 3 at the time. He's about 20 today and the most driven and successful so far of his siblings.
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