GENDER DIFFERENCES PRESENTED 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 Parenting Girls 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/W Geometry 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!