Do second children learn quicker?

We’ve been noticing Eleanor doing things recently, which Rosemary didn’t pick up until much later, and it’s occurred to us that perhaps she’s picking some things up from her sister. It seems like it might be easier for a child to pick things up by copying a child closer to their size, than from an adult towering above them.

We have a box in the bathroom, where all the spare toiletries are kept and, up until recently, it was a safe place to store things away from the girls. Rosemary’s only been able to open it for a few months now, though fortunately is old enough to know that she mustn’t eat or drink the shampoo or pour it all over the floor. But, Eleanor has already learnt to open it and now tends to do so while I’m in the shower, getting out various things and attempting to explore their contents – sun cream, moisturiser, shampoo, toothpaste. So far, she’s not been successful in actually getting anything out of the tubes and bottles, but it’s really only a matter of time. She’s also mastered opening doors a lot quicker than Rosemary – though fortunately can’t reach the handles to the more dangerous ones.

With the start of school and embarking on the journey into reading and writing, we’ve trying to persuade Rosemary to hold the pen in the right way. She can do it and has done it fine on a number of occasions, but seems to have got a bit of a bee in her bonnet about it and is stubbornly refusing to hold it right the majority of the time. Eleanor, on the other hand, has been seen holding a pen or crayon properly on a good number of occasions (the above picture doesn’t quite show it, but you can see that it’s close). And we know another second child who was doing so before his big sister.

So… do they pick things up from their siblings or is it just an example of every child being different and developing at different speeds and we just associate it with being a second child because we happen to be looking for similarities and differences?

What do you think? Have you noticed anything like this in your own children?