Satu--

Just a couple of thoughts, might be irrelevant:

It's been my observation that improvisational ability has a lot to do with musicianship and creativity. I'm not sure that birth order determines how creative you are. It seems that a first born might be more likely to put his or her creative talents to use in a big way, where a youngest like me might goof off a lot and not go for a goal with as much gusto. Just a thought, could be off-base.

Also, you mentioned ability in math along with "pro-sport" and "poor reader." This surprised me because I know that ability in math and language are very closely related to ability in music. It seems that people who excel in math and language at school also do really well in making music.

As the youngest of four children, I don't see your theory played out in my family. Both parents and all four kids are very musical, also all very good in math and language. I do notice that one of the middle children who has a strong interest and ability in science is not nearly as creative in music as the other three. The best at jazz improvisation is the oldest, who in many ways has a "type A" personality. The only one writing original songs is me, the youngest, and I improvise a lot, but only learned it later in life when I decided it was a skill I could learn and not an in-born ability. One of the middle kids has a career in music and acting, but is not the most creative one musically, though very talented. It seems we're all creative but in slightly different ways.

I know some really talented and creative musicians who are good at improvising, who are also firstborn, and their personality reflects that typical first-born personality (at least my understanding of it), but their musical ability does not seem to be exactly connected to their personality traits. Not sure I'm being clear. Why do I post things when I'm really tired?

Just trying to add some more food for thought--NOT trying to start an argument.

Probably I'm just biased against your theory because I don't like sweeping generalizations. There are always exceptions, and I'm often afraid of stereotyping people. Especially when teaching, I think what we expect of someone can have an effect on what they achieve. I think we have to be very careful not to decide what someone can do based on something like birth order, you know?

So, I haven't observed it, but still your theory might be correct. Thanks for starting an interesting topic. --JL