FREE ESSAY ON LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Learning and Development:
Does Birth Order Affect Who Children Become?
Birth order is a topic studied by many psychologists through numerous different studies
and conflicting viewpoints. In respect to the order in which children are born,
psychologists have labeled specific personality traits for each child. While
psychologists continue to disagree on the amount of emphasis to be placed on birth order
and personality, studies have shown family size can be a determining factor in a child's
learning and development. 
First-born, middle, youngest, and only children are the common birth order positions most
commonly studied by psychologists. Alfred Adler, a major personality theorist, often
studied the issue of birth order. He believed that "the demands of each birth order
position typically, but not inevitably, structure the way the parents treat the child and
help define the child's resulting personality," (Parker, 1998, p.29). Frank Sulloway,
author of the book "Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives,"
states:
Siblings compete with one another to secure physical, emotional, and intellectual
resources from parents. Depending on differences in birth order, gender, physical traits,
and aspects of temperament, siblings create differing roles for themselves within the
family system. These differing roles in turn lead to disparate ways of currying parental
favor. (Epstein, 1997, p.51) 
First-born children are more widely studied and have been found to have higher
responsibilities within the family and a greater need for achievement. Strong
self-discipline, a need for approval by others, susceptibility to social pressure, and
conformity to authority and regulation are also common personality traits of first-borns.
Middle-born children are more focused toward social relationships rather than fulfilling
task demands and are the most ambitious and competitive. The youngest children tend to be
less adjusted than middle-born children, are most likely to experience feelings of
inadequacy. Only children tend to desire being the center of attention, have feelings of
inferiority, and tend to be selfish in regard to sharing personal belongings. Although
these personality traits are widely accepted, a national sample by the Academic
Advancement of Youth of John Hopkins University found little relationship between birth
order and personality. However, a mild relationship between birth order and perfectionism
was evident, (Parker 29). 
Family size is more commonly accepted as a contributing factor to birth order positions.
If birth order is held constant, the larger the size of a family tends to be represented
by a lower average IQ. First-born, as well as only children are often believed to have
superior intellectual development, which can be explained by the greater amount of
attention and verbal attention given by parents. This makes sense because parents of
first-born and only children are able to focus more of their time with these children. A
1997 survey discovered the impact of a sibling born during the preschool and early grade
school years. The first-born child was significantly affected by the birth of a sibling,
which resulted in an increase in emotional problems leading to an increase in behavioral
problems during the first year. In addition, the learning development of the first-born
child significantly decreased due to the substantial changes in the child's learning
environment (Baydar, Hyle, &Brooks-Gunn, 1997, p. 964). 
First-born children tend to speak sooner than later-born children and have a verbal style
known as referential. They are able to more easily learn and speak nouns and put two or
more words coherently together. Later-born children are referred to as expressive because
their first words often reflect social interactions they have picked up from their
parents speaking with the older children, (Graeber, 1997, p.92). A 1996 study by
Oshima-Takane, Goodz, and Deverensky concluded that although later-born children and
first-born children did not differ in language development, the later-born children had a
more advanced speech production (621). The combination of child-directed speech and
overheard conversations between the parent and siblings account for this advancement.
According to Pfouts' 1980 research, first-born children achieve at a higher level than
later-born, even when the later-born children are more intellectually gifted. Little
difference has been concluded between only children and first-born children. Only
children do, however, tend to have a "significant intellectual advantage…attributed
from the quality of parent-child interactions in small families," (Parker, 1998, p.30).
Socio-economic class should also be considered as an effect of family size. Social status
should be considered because families with a higher social status tend to have fewer
children resulting in a higher proportion of first-born children. Also, as the number of
children in a family increase, the intellectual development of the children decreases.
Studies have shown early-born children achieve at higher levels, which could be the
result of socio-economic class (Parker, 1998, p.30). 
Few studies have been completed concerning birth order and family size within gifted
populations. One such study, the Developmental Study of Talented Youth (DSTY) assessed
the roles of birth order and family size in giftedness of academic ability. Family
socioeconomic status, self-esteem, locus of control, perfectionism, and personality were
used to assess these roles (Parker, 1998, p. 32). The study measured the percentage of
children in the Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth (IAAY) according to the
child's birth order and family size and compared these figures to the 1990 United States
Census. The table below represents the percentages found through the study. 
A Comparison of Birth-Order Position and Number of Children per Family between the DSTY
Sample and US Census Data
DSTY Census
Birth Order 
Only 16.1% 19.6%
Oldest 48.8% 31.9%
Middle 12.6% 16.5%
Youngest 22.6% 31.9%
Number of Children 
1 16.1% 19.6%
2 49.9% 40.8%
3 24.3% 24.5%
4 7.2% 9.5%
5 1.7% 3.4%
*5 0.8% 2.2%
Source: Parker (1998), p.33.
The table clearly points out a tendency among first-born children to be more academically
gifted. However, the table also shows a higher percentage of gifted only children in the
general population than in the DSTY sample. In both samples, it is evident a smaller
family size is more apt to produce more academically gifted children. The high percentage
in the two-child family can be accounted through the language development survey. The
second-born child has a learning environment somewhat similar to the first-born, but also
has the advantage of learning from an older sibling, (Oshima-Takane, Goodz, & Derevensky,
1996, p.621). In addition to these findings, the survey also found an absence of birth
order affects on personality, (Parker, 1998, p.36). Also, the survey pointed out family
size plays a greater role than birth order and that birth order may actually indirectly
measure family size. The fewer children in a family, the higher percentage of first-born
children that may explain why first-borns and children from relatively small families
tend to be more academically gifted. 
* For the remainder of the paper, I will incorporate more information from additional
sources not yet cited into the paper. Also, I will discuss whether or not personality
plays a role in learning, and if so, whether or not it is affected by birth order. I will
use more experiments as evidence of the findings. 
References
Baydar, N., Hyle, P., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1997). A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of
the Birth of a Sibling During Preschool and Early Grade School Years. Journal of Marriage
and the Family, (59), 957-965.
Epstein, Joseph (1997). O, brother! (birth order's effect on human behavior). Commentary,
(103), 51-55.
Graeber, Laurel (1997). Talking Timetable: Personality, not intelligence affects when
your child will speak. Parents Magazine, (72), 90-92.
Oshima-Takane, Y., Goodz, E., & Deverensky, J.L. (1996). Birth Order Effects on Early
Language Development: Do Secondborn Children Learn from Overheard Speech? Child
Development, (67), 621-634.
Parker, Wayne D. (1998). Birth-Order Effects in the Academically Talented. Gifted Child
Quarterly, (42), 29-37.