Here is my question: In your opinion (because it is nearly impossible to tell for sure), how has birth order affected your children's language development? Is T where N was at the same age in terms of language? Does having N a K chattering up a storm provide language models for T, encouraging her to speak more, and earlier? Or does she not need to speak, because her sisters can say it all for her?
Using my memory as a guide, I wrote a long post in reply about how T (#3) and K (#2) were acquiring langague faster because they did/do watch their older sister/s.... Then I went back to a video of N (#1) at not quite 15 months and she was saying a LOT of words. She did a pretty good job for 14.5 months. Now I'm going to have to dig out my journal from N's first year and check the data and see what really happened. So to conclude, I'm not sure. I'm guessing the data will tell me they acquired language at a pretty similar pace. (See below for more about their similar physical development.)
N had a LOT of adults talking with her and trying to get her to talk. K and T did/do have their older sister/s chattering all the time. (N NEVER is quiet. NEVER. I love hearing her think aloud, but sometimes... Oh my! K talks a LOT too. She is very funny. She doesn't sound like a baby at all. She speaks clearly and uses big words. She sometimes has funny "conclusions," but she speaks really well.)
**********
One thing I do know, that was different about K and T than N, is that both K and T asked, "What's that?" and N never (hardly ever) did. I don't think that's a birth order thing.... I don't know why. Both K and T started doing that pretty early ~10 months. I was shocked when K started doing it. Two-words together typically doesn't come until quite a bit later.
(Perhaps, given the way K and T used said "two words' (W'asthat) was actually more like one word... and that's why they were able to say it. Although, a few times, before either of them were too old, they said "What is that?" Clear as day. Neither of them used other two (or more) word phrases though until they were older. T (17 months) still only says "Who's/What's that?" for her two-word phrases. Everything else is a typical one-word utterance.)
Physical Development
As far as learning to crawl, they all learned to crawl before 7 months. I think N was a few days away from 7 months when she crawled and I'm pretty sure that T crawled the youngest (closest to 6 months) and K crawled at 6.5 months, but I will have to go double check myself ...
Learning to walk... I declared them all walkers at around 11 months or 11 months 1 week... (I declare them walkers when they can go more than 10 steps without falling.)
I think they've been pretty similar in terms of their development. We'll see if the trend continues. (And because I like charts and graphs, someday I'll make ones about their development.)
Other thoughts
I have seen the littler sisters watching the older sister(s) and taking notes.... I remember when K was about 3 or 4 months old... N was running around being a spaz and I could SEE the wheels turning in K's head. K was taking notes on all the things N was doing and tucking away the information to use later.
I see the younger girls becoming more aware of how to do things and how the "world" works earlier, but maybe they are doing that because N is so much in her own little universe. (We call it the N___verse.) She may not have learned much about how the world worked early on because she just didn't pay attention. T and K pay attention to EVERYTHING. They want to be savvy about things. It may just be a personality difference and not a birth order thing.
I do see the N trying to teach her little sisters things... I do see K and T being totally absorbed watching N. I am imagining that they learn from each other. (Because I'm a geek, I actually see them as having a CoP.)
1 comment:
I am a little sister and I always had a drive to do what my big sister was doing. I can see the same thing in many of H & K's cousins. H & K however almost completely lack it. As twins they want to be able to do what the other one can and they usually can. They mostly don't have the desire to stretch to reach the next developmental milestone, they just make it when it comes.
Reinforcing each other has also affected their language. They have a shared accent and way of speaking. Sometimes this worries me. I had an English accent picked up from learning to talk with my mother that I was still being teased about in my teens. I expect though that school will fix it.
Post a Comment