Who's the Smart Sibling?

New studies weigh in on the age-old controversy over whether firstborns are more intelligent than seconds.

By Mary Carmichael | Newsweek Web Exclusive

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  • Posted By: pgcard23 @ 05/02/2008 3:01:57 PM

    In an age where parents are having less and less children, I feel this article is totally irrelevant. Back when families had 3 or more children, the oldest would probably be the smartest simply because they had the responsibility of taking care of the younger children and watching out for them. They set examples and made sure they were on the right patch. Now with families getting smaller, there is less of a need for them to be as responsible and more of a likelihood that either child (considering the family has 2) has the possibility of being more intelligent. If this test is compared with old tests, the data will be skewed. I don't really see a relevance of making the comparison in this day and age. With the changing times and advances in technology, the younger you are the better off you are to learn these new technologies. If anything, it errs on the side of the younger child.

  • Posted By: Mercedes36535 @ 05/02/2008 1:15:32 PM

    Here???s the reason: What do kids want more than anything? To grow up. They want what the older child has. They will always feel that they are second best. Unless you retard the older children, the younger children will always resent the fact that ???they can???t play with the big kids???, or ???they can???t beat the older kids in sports, etc.???. This ???perception??? is it. A parent telling a younger child that ???they are younger???, or ???they are not as smart??? ??? feels the same to a child because there???s no quick fix to the age difference.

    Thank You very much!

  • Posted By: Mercedes36535 @ 05/02/2008 1:13:35 PM

    Here???s the reason: What do kids want more than anything? To grow up. They want what the older child has. They will always feel that they are second best. Unless you retard the older children, the younger children will always resent the fact that ???they can???t play with the big kids???, or ???they can???t beat the older kids in sports, etc.???. This ???perception??? is it. A parent telling a younger child that ???they are younger???, or ???they are not as smart??? ??? feels the same to a child because there???s no quick fix to the age difference.

    Thank You very much!

  • Posted By: Mercedes36535 @ 05/02/2008 1:12:33 PM

    Here???s the reason: What do kids want more than anything? To grow up. They want what the older child has. They will always feel that they are second best. Unless you retard the older children, the younger children will always resent the fact that ???they can???t play with the big kids???, or ???they can???t beat the older kids in sports, etc.???. This ???perception??? is it. A parent telling a younger child that ???they are younger???, or ???they are not as smart??? ??? feels the same to a child because there???s no quick fix to the age difference.

    Thank You very much!

  • Posted By: sjs13 @ 04/30/2008 10:30:12 PM

    These studies also need to take into account the small facts brough about by reasearch that children with older siblings have less language development, or develop language less rapidly than a first born. When playing with an older sibling language of the younger child is understood through familiarity by the older, and therefore the children with older siblings need not find new words to express themselves. Yet when playing with same-aged peers, language development was found to increase rapidly because the children could learn from one another. The real "problem" may be that younger siblings are provided for, or taken care of by the older sibling, which doesn't allow the younger child to learn on his or her own. An example would be if a three year old was struggling with using his words to say he wants a favorite toy, and his older sibling, knowing that at that certain time of day the younger one held his "bookie" or what have you to take a nap, knew why the little guy was upset and just went and got the toy for the boy. The younger child never got the chance to be challenged to say what he wanted for himself. I'm sure most of us can relate this to experiences that continue throughout the relationship we hold with a younger sibling. I think the next article should be on the myth of middle child syndrome, haha.

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