The first born are smarter thread

LesOs
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:34:54 +0000

“I really think it is all based on the Parents. For the 1st child, the parents are more engaged, and able to develop the brain in the early days. Me and my brothers are 5 years apart and I think my parents may have gotten a bit burned out. (or just really old… ) It’s all about those formative early years.”
I agree. When I was a baby, my parents spent all of their time teaching me shapes, colors, my ABC’s, etc. I learned how to speak at 7 months and was reading books at one and a half (I’m not trying to brag… obviously, I’m no prodigy or anything!). They devoted all of their time to giving me all of the best opportunities. However, my mother had another child when I was in 8th grade, my sister in 6th, and my brother in kindergarten. She had far less time to “stimulate” my little-little sister’s mind… and she was a late talker.

I also have noticed that everyone in the top ten at my school are either first-borns or only childs. Interesting…

I’m smarter than my younger sister. We both take Honors classes, but she gets B’s and A-'s while I get A’s and A+'s. My parents don’t let me talk about my grades, ACT/SAT scores, or awards around her (not that I do anyway… but I have to hide my report cards and certificates). They don’t want her to feel any pressure or feel inferior to me.

My younger brother is very bright, though… although, he’s the opposite of how I was at his age. I was advanced in English and art, and disliked Math. He loves math and science (he comes home and teaches himself science and math out of books he takes out of the library, and conducts science experiments… etc), but is a terrible writer and still draws stick figures. I grew to become good at math, though, and even came to like it (ha, ha), so he’ll probably do the same with English.