HOW HAS YOUR BIRTH MONTH AFFECTED YOU?

HOW HAS YOUR BIRTH MONTH AFFECTED YOU?

None of us can choose our month of birth. Your parent’s post television viewing tendencies somehow determine the ultimate month you arrive in the world. With some of the current research on “birth months”, we are learning that in some areas of life, the month you are born might make a difference. 

In US states where children must turn 5 by September 1 in order to start kindergarten that year, children born in August, just before the cutoff, are more likely to be diagnosed with and treated for ADHD, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.The study looked at 407,846 US children born between 2007 and 2009 to see how many diagnoses of ADHD occurred in relation to the child's month of birth.

Researchers found that there were more diagnoses for children born in August and then found it was true only in states that have a September 1 cutoff date to start kindergarten. That means the August-born children would be among the youngest in their classrooms, sometimes nearly a year younger than other classmates. The relative immaturity of young children's brains can make those that are merely younger at school entry demonstrate behaviours consistent with ADHD such as trouble paying attention, being overly active and trouble controlling impulsive behaviours. While there is no cause or effect suggested, I thought the finding was quite interesting. 

Another study of the effects of birth month was chronicled in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers”. He studied the roster of a Memorial Cup winning junior hockey team and believed they were so successful because the majority of the players were born in the first two months (January and February) of the eligibility year. 

Gladwell explains what academics call the relative-age effect, by which an initial advantage attributable to age gets turned into a more profound advantage over time. Because Canada’s eligibility cutoff for junior hockey is January 1, Gladwell writes, “a boy who turns 10 on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn’t turn 10 until the end of the year.” You can guess at that age, when the differences in physical maturity are so great, which one of those kids is going to make the league all-star team. Once on that all-star team, the January 2 kid starts practicing more, getting better coaching, and playing against tougher competition—so much so that by the time he’s, say, 14, he’s not just older than the kid with the December 30 birthday, he’s better.

As a former teacher, Gladwell’s explanation makes some sense to me. Often junior high students who had repeated a grade in elementary school were a year older than their peers. Especially in the field of athletics, these older students were bigger, stronger and more coordinated, and usually could outplay their younger classmates. One year more of development in the teen years can make a lot of difference.

Did you experience any advantages or disadvantages that you feel might have been attributed somewhat to your month of birth?