Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
From AJC>>>
Welcome to AJC! | ajc.com (http://tinyurl.com/yoaa9k - broken link)
'First-born children possess IQs that are 2.3 points higher, on average, than their younger siblings, a new study contends.'
<snip>
Unfortunately this theory was not true in my family.
My younger brother is much smarter than I am. Math/Science/spatial reasoning smart--a Leftie. Chemistry, German, AP Math. A's--
But very moody and has his own, often 'Insane' opinions.
Yesterday was his b'day. Hope this year is better for him. Came of age around the time of Viet Nam--the latter Boomers-I guess that group is called.
Lots of societal problems from that era.
That's definitly not true w/ my three kids. My second child, a girl, has about 20 points higher IQ than my first-born son who has a slightly higher than average IQ. I only know this because I've had psycho-educational testing done on my kids at different times. For my son, it was w/ the suspision he had ADHD and dyslexia (suspicion confirmed). For my daughter, it was necessary to provide test results for her to enter the county's "gifted and talented" center for school. Don't know about my third yet, since she's young.
'First-born children possess IQs that are 2.3 points higher, on average, than their younger siblings, a new study contends.'
Glad to hear it since I'm the first born! My two kids are both equally smart.
LOL - my older sister always latched onto factoid/reports like this growing up - and she then brought them up as often as possible to justify how first-borns are better. Years later, she married a first-born, and indeed they only have one child (and only want one). Ironically, I was the one in TAG and who had no problem scoring higher on any IQ or other standardized test even throughout college.
From my experience, this whole first vs second-born thing is baloney. Having been friends with a bunch of first borns and latter-born siblings... there was no discernable intelligence trend with birth order. Of course I might just not be smart enough to have noticed it
<From my experience, this whole first vs second-born thing is baloney. Having been friends with a bunch of first borns and latter-born siblings... there was no discernable intelligence trend with birth order. Of course I might just not be smart enough to have noticed it >
I completely agree.
Thinking back to elementary/high school--around the start of the Baby Boom years--placement levels were in vogue. That created a number of problems--you were a 1, 2 or 3. I was not a three and still have a bit of anxiety around 'Smart' people. LOL--'failure' as a first-born? Maybe that is my problem.
I don't enjoy the 'Nature v Nurture' discussion but there is so much more to becoming fully functioning than 'test scores', etc
Funny study. I am the oldest of 4. My brother has a higher IQ. I always had better grades then the other 3, I tried alot harder then they did. My brother has a genius IQ, he never studied for tests in school. He is now a convicted felon and hooked on crystal meth. In our case, IQ has nothing to do with smarts, lol.
I'm wondering if this is sometimes the case as the oldest receives a lot of attention/reading/teaching from mom/dad, same as for the baby as mom knows this will be her last & there are older siblings to learn from, too?
Of my siblings, the oldest & youngest are definitely the brightest, best adjusted, most successful & with the most self-esteem. The baby was also a late-life child, so also had 6 older to teach/care for her. The middle ones, well, they run the gambut. No dad around & mom had no time, so they fended for themselves. Some are smart but disinterested learners, others are smart but lack confident/ambition, some are not so bright but hard workers.
I guess it can depend on how many children total there are, if parents are attentive & just overall, the total chemical make-up of parents & kids? Less kids, available mom/dad, more attention for all. I also saw in friends' families while growing up that the more $ & less kids, the less the parents were stressed & the more they seemed to enjoy life. Now this is just a small cross section of society from my life, but yeah, my family fits those stats. So do my mom's siblings. My dad had 12 brothers/sisters & were so poor, I don't think anybody had much care, kindness or attention, but they were all "street smart" as they had to be. Just feeding the brood was a daily, daunting chore. BTW, my sister's kids fit this pattern, too. The oldest is brilliant & the youngest sloth-like teen has to be dragged off the sofa for anything/everything. All other siblings had only one child or none.
That being said, I have met people as vacant as caverns & find it hard to believe they were all middle or younger kids. Some kids are so far away from their familial gene pool in many respects, it's hard to believe when you find "You're so & so's brother/sister!??", either in a positive or negative way.
I suppose some family will fit the results of any study. I hope to find that I'm part of the study of adult children found to have been accidentally switched at the hospital & are proven to be Betsy Bloomingdale's children. I've always had the feeling someone's been walking around with all my money... VV
My older son is book smart - my younger son is street smart. I.Q. isn't always about what's on a sheet of paper. If I need an attorney, I'm callling the oldest....if I'm going to a dicey part of town, I want the youngest.
Both of them were together recently - broad daylight and a very large and obviously doped up man started angling toward them on the parking lot. The younger put some cars between him and this man and tried to get his brother to come along - brother didn't and was the victim of an attempted robbery....unfortunately, older son is the poorest lawyer known to mankind and all he could do was throw the robber a peace sign Confused the guy so much that he left....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Confused the guy so much that he left....
