What is the perfect age gap between children?
We look at whether there is a ‘perfect’ age gap to have between your siblings
Everyone seems to have an opinion on what the ‘perfect’ age gap between siblings is but is there one? According to new research there just may be.
At least two years gap between siblings is the perfect scenario when it comes to intelligence the new research has revealed.
It showed that children with at least a two year age gap were found to do better on maths and reading tests than siblings with less of an age gap.
The reasons given for the findings were that parents had more time to spend with their eldest child before their focus was split to two children.
The research looked at the data from 3,000 mums with 5,000 sibling pairs, and the researcher, Professor Kasey, found that siblings aged between 3 and 5 with a bigger age gap were read to more as younger children and didn’t watch as much TV as those with a smaller age gap.
Professor Kasey also noted that the biggest benefit for the larger age gap was for the elder children, he also observed that there was no negative impact on the younger sibling as a result.
So research suggests at least two years age is ‘perfect’, but of course, as parents know, it’s not always possible to determine the ideal age gap between their children.