GENDER DIFFERENCESPRESENTED BY ANNE MALEY, OCTOBER 2013

Gender differences are not a case of superiority or inferiority . There are things boys tend to do better than girls and vice versa

Did you know?• Boys get the majority of D’s and failures, as high as 70%• Boys make up 80 % of the discipline problems• 80% of students diagnosed with behaviour problems are

boys• 80% of dropouts are boys• Males are about 40% of university population• Boys love “Did you Know?”

Biological Differences

Girls• Brains mature earlier and faster

• Brain at rest is in frontal lobes

• Hear better (35% better)

Boys• Brain slower to mature

• Brain at rest is on the brain stem

• Hearing weaker- need a louder voice

Hearing-Babies- boys do not hear music as well as girl- they found in premature that if girl babies hummed Brahms lullabies they went home earlier than girls who were not hummed to – but there was no difference in boys

Unfortunately the difference in hearing becomes greater when they get older.

Implication for ParentingGirls• Talk softer to girls• Try not to raise your voice

Boys• Talk louder to boys-

become more expressive so they are understanding

Visual system• Girls interpret facial expressions better that boys• Researchers found that baby girls are more interested in

looking at faces while baby boys were twice as likely to be interested in looking at the mobile

Visual system

• Male retina is thicker than the female retina and has different types of cells so they see differently

What this means?• Girls are better at objects (What is it?)

• In Toys – girls prefer dolls

• Girls use warm colours in their drawings

• Girls draw nouns

• Boys are better at object location (Where is it?)

• Boys prefer trucks over dolls

• Boys prefer cool colours (blue, grey, silver, black)

• Boys draw verbs

Implications for Parenting• Provide girls with lots of colour crayons

• Accept the drawings and do not ask boys to add more colour because you are suggesting that there is something wrong with their art.

Cognitive Processing

Girls

• More random information• Short time period• Multi-tasking• Longer attention span

Boys

• Very specific information• Store for longer periods of

time• Focused on one thing but

well (25% percent smaller corpus callosum)

• Shorter attention• Need more sensory-tactile

experience for brains to process

• Learn more outdoors/action

Emotions and the Brain

Females• As girls mature, the brain activity associated with emotions moves out of the amygdala to the cerebral cortex.

• This means that as a girl gets older they can describe why they feel what they feel

Males• As boys mature, brain activity associated with emotions remains in the amygdala.

Boys on Average• Take more risks• Show natural physical aggression• Rely heavily on nonverbal communication• Less able to verbalise feelings• Better spatial abilities and abstract reasoning such as

measuring

Self-esteem

Girls• Underestimate their abilities

• In dangerous situations, girls are fearful

Boys• Over-estimate their abilities (think they are stronger than they are)

May be because our culture is always praising boys • In dangerous situations,boys feel exhilarated

Implications for Parenting

Help girls be more confident• Learned helplessness-shielding girls from injury makes them risk-averse- let girls explore the world- treat them like boys when they get an injury.

Keep our boys safe! • Supervise them!• Give boys guidance- get him a lesson on the ski hill before he starts

• Assert your authority (don’t argue, don’t negotiate- Just do it)

Research suggests!• Boys who are deprived of ways to show natural

aggression grow up more violent that those who do no have a natural outlet

Boys and Aggressive Play• Sports- give boys a natural outlet for their need for

aggressive play

Boys and Girls in Math

Girls

• No area in brain for directions

• Need verbally to do well- talk (not just turn to text book and do)

• Struggle with spatial reasoning

Boys

• Have built in N/S/E/WGeometry is easier for them. Can do flips/ turns etc

• Good at symbols and abstract thinking

Girls need support in spatial reasoning

• Take girls of walks• Have girls copy complex patterns• Have girls build up- they will build houses- ask them to

build tall

BOYS LEARN BY MOVEMENT!• Help boys by doing movement activities with

literacy - finger plays, move to sound,• Short books• Books that have moving parts- cars, motorcycles

Literacy Facts• Boys reading performance lag behind girls by about 1.5

year---BUT that depends on the topic• When fathers take an active role in children’s reading they

do better• Having a man teacher in primary – reading skills go up

(even having a male read to the class)

Boys like Books• Include books on humour• Reference books• Non-fiction

Boys are social learners• Need to work with others boys• Group work• Boys need to be in small groups with other boys• Resist the temptation to have them read quietly

Use of space

Girls •Small amounts of space

Boys•Take up a lot of room

Discipline 2-4 year olds

Girls• Gently correct- firmly We

don’t slap• How would that make you

feel- if someone slapped you

• Time out – last resort

Boys• Gently correct-We don’t

slap”• How do you feel – doesn’t

usually work! Then time out (withdrawal from situation

Good luck!