Peer-reviewed article

Kindergarten Pupils’ Birth Order and Domains of Early Childhood Development

Rene Nanit · 1 Jan 2020

Abstract

This study aimed to find significant relationship of kindergarten pupils’ birth order and achievement in domains of early childhood development (e.g., gross and fine motors, self-help, receptive and expressive languages, cognitive, and socio-emotional) using descriptive-correlational design. A total population of 360 was reduced to 189 using Slovin’s formula; respondents were chosen through random sampling. Results show that most of the kindergarten pupils are last-born children. Pupils’ achievement in fine motor, receptive language, and cognitive domains was average while slightly delayed in gross motor, self-help, expressive language, and socio-emotional domains. Statistically, gross motor and expressive language domains have a significant relationship with birth order. In the gross motor, only middle born children have developed averagely; others were slightly delayed. In expressive language, only-child kindergarten pupils perform better than the other birth order. With this, teachers should consider birth order in providing learning opportunities to develop gross motor and expressive language.