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1st January 2020
12:26pm GMT

Lead researcher Dr Julia Rohrer said the following about the result: “One theory is that following children “dilute” the resources of their parents."
Well, I think we can all agree that our brains do indeed get a little diluted with motherhood – and as more babies come along, no?
“While the firstborn gets full parental attention, at least for some months or years, late-borns will have to share from the beginning," Rohrer explains.
“Another possible factor is described by the tutoring hypothesis: A firstborn can “tutor” their younger siblings, explaining to them how the world works and so on. Teaching other people has high cognitive demands – the children need to recall their own knowledge, structure it and think of a good way to explain it to younger siblings, which could provide a boost to intelligence for some firstborns.”Explore more on these topics: