Number of Older Siblings and Receptive–Expressive Language Outcomes in Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: This study aimed to examine associations between sibling number and receptive and expressive language outcomes in children aged 24–72 months using the Turkish Early Language Development Test (TEDİL).Methods: This cross-sectional study included 81 children who were categorized into three groups according to sibling number: children with no siblings, one sibling, and two or more siblings. Receptive and expressive language skills were directly assessed using TEDİL. Group comparisons were performed using one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey HSD post-hoc tests. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to determine whether group differences remained significant after adjustment for age and daily screen time.Results: Significant differences were observed in both receptive and expressive language standard scores across sibling groups (p < 0.001). The lowest language performance was found in children with two or more siblings. Post-hoc analyses indicated that group differences were more pronounced for expressive language outcomes. In covariate-adjusted analyses, associations between sibling number and language outcomes remained statistically significant after controlling for age and daily screen time.Conclusion: The findings suggest that sibling number may represent an important characteristic of the home environment associated with early language outcomes. Closer monitoring of language development and the implementation of interaction-based early intervention approaches may be particularly beneficial for children from larger families.