Little Girls and Little Boys

In the past few years we have seen very good scientific evidence that during prenatal development several factors work in concert to shape female and male brains differently. Some of this research began with the work of John Money at Johns Hopkins University three decades ago. It is an area of great interest and still receives a lot of attention. While the scientific world has been researching and publishing the results for several years, we in the rest of the population mostly live without knowing what is being produced and the significance of it for parents, teachers, and mental health workers. For instance, if we knew the differences between male and females could we make better adjustments to our children and treat them with better care and greater opportunities? Probably.

Two familiar examples can illustrate. Males typically develop eight to ten months later than females until puberty or months afterward when males catch up. Knowing this, lets suppose parents are faced with the choice of sending a child to school whose birthday is just before the school deadline or keeping that child out for another year. If the child is a boy the best guess is to wait another year. If the child is a girl, then depending on mental readiness and social confidence, parents could send the child with greater confidence success will result. Here is a second example. Males typically prefer to spend time with activities which include rough and tumble play, building, using objects, and etc. Females usually prefer to put things together such as putting toys in a circle, arranging objects, and enjoying companionship as much as performing some activity. Should we make use of this knowledge when we buy toys or arrange games for them to play?

The language center in female brains is typically larger and more densely organized than in the male brain. The brain center for spatial relationships is typically larger and more organized in males than in females. Girls typically understand language better, see and understand facial expressions and emotional cues, typically do better with the verbal requirements of school while boys typically do less well with emotional cues but do better with hands on tasks to learn. I use the word typical because there are many individual variations.

Can any of these mental skills be advanced if we want to educate boys and girls to improve their skills. In most cases the answer is yes but it takes time and effort. We are revisiting the idea of same gender math classes and language classes so we can adapt teaching methods to specific genders. There is mounting evidence this might be helpful to both.

The important key for parents is this. We will find similarities between boys and girls. We will see uniqueness for each gender. If we worry more about equality between the sexes than we emphasize the need for understanding individual differences we might penalize our children. We can do both without making one feel less important than the other if we know how they are different and how we can treat each with appropriate care.