The Influence of Parity on Children's Speech

Social interactions experienced by later born children are characterised by less supportive and more directional communication than first borns. These less supportive interactions may result in later born children having smaller vocabularies. However, the interactions may also help later born children develop conversational skills. The aim of this study was to examine these issues in relation to the speech abilities of 5 and 6 year old, first and later born children. The first borns were found to have larger receptive vocabularies, but less developed conversational skills than later born children. Closer examination of the data suggested that this effect could be due to singletons.