Whenever someone explains that he educates his children the same, and that he has treated all of them in the same way, some interesting questions arise: Have you really done the same with them, if the time with each one is not the same? And on the other hand, is it really positive for children to educate them all equally, each one being different and unique?
Today we are going to talk about the first question, and that is one of the suspicions that many parents have, which says that the first children are smarter than those who arrive later, statistically speaking (there will always be exceptions).
The older ones have a higher IQ
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a national survey with children from before birth to age 14, in which the family environment and economic conditions were analyzed. With almost 5,000 children observed every two years, studying their skills and intelligence, they saw that when reading single words, naming objects, understanding what they read and making logic games, the firstborn got better results, having a higher IQ (IQ).
This difference was observed at one year of life, and was maintained during the first years until entering the school. From that moment on, the differences could be minor, but they were still statistically significant.
The time that parents spend with each child
A saying goes that "The first child you wash the pacifier before giving it to him, the second you clean it with your mouth and the third you pass it with a kick." Obviously it is an exaggeration of reality, but it is still true that the former gets attention that the following receive to a lesser extent, or directly receive.
With the elder, parents share a lot of time, play together, do activities such as going to the theater, reading many stories, looking for stimulating environments, avoiding overstimulation of the screens, etc. With the second, although they continue to do some of these activities, they are no longer exclusive to the second, but shared, and the attention that the little one receives hardly comes to equate in quality or in hours with which he received the major. If you add a third child to the equation, it is likely that going to the theater will happen very rarely, that trying to stimulate your cognition goes to the background and that the three end up more time in front of the television or tablet of the desirable.
Tell me, we, that we have hundreds of photos of the eldest, a few tens of the medium, and a few of the small. And I confess: I have barely played with Guim, so exclusively the two (spend time and have conversations yes, many, but what to play ...), but not for not wanting, but because there is no material time left. In my house we are two adults for three small children (now not so small); That's why I've always told Miriam that at home we need a third adult. What about doing a trio, if that person stays home to lend a hand, it doesn't seem so bad.
Mothers seem to take less care of themselves in the following pregnancies
As we read in DailyMail, the researchers of the study, which has been published in the journal Journal of Human ResourcesThey also saw that some mothers seemed to take less care of themselves in the following pregnancies, being another possible cause of the difference:
Mothers take more risks during pregnancy and are less likely to breastfeed and provide cognitive stimulation for children at this last birth.
Or what is the same: it seems that women lose a little fear of following certain behaviors during pregnancy (tobacco, alcohol, etc.), breastfeed less time to the youngest and worry less about the stimulation of the baby, if Everything is compared to the first child.
But little brothers are more hustlers!
The study of the order of the brothers and the character has been throwing curious, but often contradictory, data for many years. That does affect, that does not affect, that older are more like this and small are more handle... The reality is that until there are no more studies and research we will continue in doubt, but it seems quite plausible to me the conclusions of this research that I bring you today.
In fact, the title of a book published in 2012 seems logical to me: "Why the firstborn want to rule the world and those born in the end want to change it", which comes to explain that the little ones are the ones who have the most to fight for the time of father and mother, for toys, to be one more and taken into account, etc., while they learn from the elders everything they can and plus. In other words: the following brothers are children who not only learn from their parents, but also from older siblings.
This makes, in theory, that they are children with great emotional intelligence; and for a few years it has been known that when it comes to obtaining success in life, the ability of people to interact satisfactorily with others can be as or more relevant than the intellectual quotient.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | How does the birth order of children influence their personality? Firstborn are smarter, why do favorite children exist?
