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When it comes to Speech and Language Development, is there a gender difference?

As most parents and teachers would concur, the National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families has concluded that there are developmental timetable differences between girls and boys from a very early age. Girls are thought to be slightly more advanced with vision, hearing, memory, smell and touch versus boys. Girl babies are somewhat more socially attuned to human voices, faces and also cry more in response to another infant’s cry. As a result, they may lead boys in the emergence of fine motor and language skills.

Boys tend to outperform girls in visual-spatial integration, which is involved in putting together puzzles and certain eye-hand tasks. Boys may perform better with tasks like mental rotation, while girls tend to perform better at verbal tasks and identifying facial expressions.  Interestingly, hormonal differences do not fully account for the gender-based differences observed in children’s’ brains. As they get older, experience also plays a role. Due
to advanced spatial skills, boys may prefer activities like climbing or pushing cars and trucks, thereby honing their visual/spatial skills further. Girls, by contrast, may gravitate toward games with siblings and dramatic play, thereby reinforcing more advanced verbal and social skills.  

The remarkable plasticity of children’s brains provides parents with opportunities to compensate for the different tendencies of boys and girls. More verbal interaction can improve any child’s language skills (engaging in more conversation and word play). Girls can benefit by building activities to encourage visual-spatial integration. 

It should be noted that while some language processing differences remain throughout adulthood, speech differences between boys and girls are usually negligible by the age of three.  

An interesting clinical study out of Northwestern University and the University of Haifa provided conclusive evidence that there is a difference in the “wiring” of girls and boys brains. In the study, “Sex differences in neural processing of language among children,” The researchers used fMRI technology to measure brain activity in 9-15 year old children while they performed spelling and writing activities. Through various verbal and learning activities, they found that girls and boys rely on different parts of their brains when completing language-based activities and language processing. When boys read, they did not say the words they saw and therefore the information remained in the visual areas of the brain. When they heard the words, but did not read them, the information remained in the auditory area of the brain. The girls studied, however, showed much greater activation in these same areas of the brain – they process language in more abstract ways. Click here for more detailed findings from Science Daily.  

Here are some steps parents can take to facilitate speech, verbal and spatial skills with all children: 

• Include both genders in conversations with each other
• Read to your child every day to promote improved verbal abilities
• Select games for both girls and boys that develop spatial skills, such as games involving strategies, quick reactions, tossing games, building blocks, Legos, and puzzles.

By:  V. White,  M.A., Early Childhood Education