Journal of Child Language

Table of Contents - 2004 - Volume 31, Issue 04  


Note

Vocabulary competence in first- and secondborn siblings of the same chronological age 1

MARC H. BORNSTEIN a1c1, DIANE B. LEACH a1 and O. MAURICE HAYNES a1
a1 Child and Family Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services

Article author query
bornstein mh   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
leach db   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
maurice haynes o   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

Abstract

We explored vocabulary competence in 55 firstborn and secondborn sibling pairs when each child reached 1;8 using multiple measures of maternal report, child speech, and experimenter assessment. Measures from each of the three sources were interrelated. Firstborns' vocabulary competence exceeded secondborns' only in maternal reports, not in child speech or in experimenter assessments. Firstborn girls outperformed boys on all vocabulary competence measures, and secondborn girls outperformed boys on most measures. Vocabulary competence was independent of the gender composition and, generally, of the age difference in sibling pairs. Vocabulary competence in firstborns and secondborns was only weakly related.

(Published Online December 1 2004)
(Received April 4 2003)
(Revised January 16 2004)


Correspondence:
c1 Marc H. Bornstein, Child and Family Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda MD 20892-7971, USA. e-mail: Marc_H_Bornstein@nih.gov

Footnotes

1 We thank K. M. Painter and C. Varron for assistance.