Having an older brother comes with plenty of benefits. Big brothers tend to look out for their younger counterparts, and despite the occasional rocky moment here and there, many siblings¹ enjoy life-long close relationships. However, a new study finds an interesting downside: children with older brothers take longer when it comes to developing language skills.

有一个哥哥好处多多。哥哥通常都会保护弟妹，尽管偶尔也会吵架，但许多兄弟或兄妹一辈子关系都很亲密。然而，一项研究发现了一个有趣的弊端：有哥哥的孩子学语言更慢。

The study, conducted by a group of researchers in Paris, France, builds upon prior² research that had already established that having older siblings is associated with poor linguistic³ development. Now, researchers say they have refined those findings to come to a more specific conclusion: only children with an older brother exhibit these linguistic difficulties.

法国巴黎的一个研究团队开展的这项研究基于此前的一项研究结论：有哥哥姐姐的人语言能力更差。现在，研究人员表示，他们得出了更为具体的结论：有哥哥的孩子才会表现出语言学习方面的迟缓。

One would assume that children with older brothers would grow up around more conversation on a daily basis, thus speeding up their language development. Yet researchers say such children actually take longer than their older brothers to begin developing these skills.

你可能会以为，有哥哥的孩子每天在更多对话中成长，因而会加速他们的语言能力发展。然而，研究人员表示，实际上这样的孩子语言能力开始发育的时间比哥哥们更晚。

Researchers studied more than 1,000 children from birth to the age of five-and-a-half years old. Each child's language skills were tested at ages 2, 3, and 5.5, using tests specially⁴ designed to measure numerous aspects of language development such as vocabulary, syntax, and verbal reasoning.

研究人员调查了1000多个孩子，从新生儿到5岁半的孩子。每个孩子在2岁、3岁和5岁半的时候都接受了专门设计的语言能力测试，这些测试是为了衡量词汇量、语法和语言推理等语言发育的多个方面。

What the research team discovered was significant: children with an older brother had, on average, a two-month delay in their language development compared to studied children with an older sister.

研究团队有了重要发现：有哥哥的孩子语言发育平均比有姐姐的孩子晚两个月。

As far as explaining this phenomenon⁵, researchers have proposed two hypotheses. The first is that older sisters tend to talk more often than older brothers, which would compensate⁶ for parents potentially being less present than they were for their first child. The second hypothesis is that older sisters usually compete with their siblings less than older brothers for their parents' attention.

在解释这一现象时，研究人员提出了两种假说。第一种假说是，姐姐说话比哥哥更多，弥补了父母比在第一个孩子身上少花的时间。第二种假说是，相比哥哥，姐姐通常比较不会和弟妹争宠。

As of now, the study's authors say they can't say for certain why children with older brothers have a harder time developing language skills. In the future they would like to investigate if culture or location impacts the prevalence of these results.

研究作者称，到目前为止，他们无法明确说出为什么有哥哥的孩子学语言更困难。未来他们想调查文化或地域是否对这种普遍结果造成了影响。

The study is published in Psychological Science.

该研究发表在《心理科学》上。