The Difference Between Girls and Boys in Early Childhood Education - Essay Sample

Introduction

There is an active debate happening within the education community concerning the validity of the latest findings in neuroscience in cognition and subsequently in education. The issue of gender differences lies at the forefront of this debate. Boys are more successful with kinesthetic activities, visual, spatial relationships, and competitive activities, while girls are better with verbal or linguistic activities and auditory learning. If children already show gender differences during the establishment of early conceptual understanding, there may be implications for how new knowledge is assimilated. Additionally, the understanding and identification of gender differences can support educators and teachers in differentiating instruction that addresses the individual learning needs of boys and girls. Thus, this paper supports that boys and girls in early childhood learn differently and these differences arise from biological and social factors.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Prior research suggests significant differences between girls and boys in psychomotor development. Girls have earlier development and better language skills than boys in most linguistic domains. Girls have also been found to display greater fine activities demanding a higher degree of precision and typically involving manual manipulation of objects until four years of age. Further, girls surpass boys within verbal skills, reading ability and writing skills. According to Peyre, Hoertel, Bernard, Rouffignac, Forhan, Taine, & EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study Group (2019), sex differences in language skills at two to four years of age may reflect sex differences in cognitive development. For example, writing skills could be linked to girls' earlier motor skill development. However, socialization does play a vital role in girls' performance in language, verbal skill and subsequently reading and writing. Additionally, Peyre et al. (2019) support the idea that early biological aspects such as effects of sex chromosomes and hormones may play a substantial role in the greater verbal and fine motor observed in girls during the preschool period.

The opposite trajectory appears regarding boys and girls ability within mathematics. Mainly, there is a perception among parents, educator, and teachers that boys are better at mathematics and related subjects such as science. According to a study by Baron, Schmader, Cvencek, and Meltzoff (2014), gender differences in science attainment emerge fairly early in development. Besides the influence of society on gender differences, Peyre, Charkaluk, Forhan, Heude, Ramus, and EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study Group (2017) suggest that there may be differences in how boys and girls process scientific information that has roots at a very young age. For instance, by 18 months of age, children typically have already started to form gender-related expectations concerning objects and activities mainly associated with girls and boys. By the age of 36 months, children employ gender terms such as boy and girl and can correctly label their gender. Their behavior also becomes more gender-differentiated, particularly in the area of play where boys and girls tend to engage in specific forms of activities (Baron et al., 2014). The delineation of activities as male and female influences how much emphasis boys and girls place on science and mathematics related activities. Hence, boys in early childhood play in ways that promote spatial skills and mathematical reasoning, engaging in much higher levels of construction play than girls do.

Social competence is another important accomplishment of childhood years. Research shows that, the development of social skills and problem behaviors often differ by gender, starting at an early age. While girls are more likely to possess higher social skills and academic competence, boys have often more problem behaviors. In support of this, O'Connor, McCormack, Robinson, and O'Rourke (2017) observed children's play under naturalistic conditions at nursery schools during self-selected activities and spontaneous peer-groups. Based on the study, O'Connor et al. (2017) evidenced vital sex differences in children's social play. For instance, a solitary play was influenced by sex whereby preschool boys played alone more frequently than preschool girls were. Hence, although all children progress towards more socially oriented and skillful forms of play during early childhood, girls develop social and structured forms of play at younger ages than boys do. Notably, as play involves communication, cooperation, and role taking, sex differences in social play may be a by-product of sex differences in socio-cognitive skills, as girls develop language and theory-of-mind skills earlier than boys do.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is clear that boys and girls in early childhood learn differently and these differences arise from biological and social factors. In particular, boys and girls are not the same internally since there are some physiological, biochemical, and neurological differences between the sexes. There are three areas where these differences have been most consistent in early childhood education. For example, while boys learn things better by doing and performing hands-on activities such as mathematical tasks, girls perform better in verbal exercises. Additionally, girls hold a greater advantage in having a wider range of sensory information, creating personal relationships, and verbal and communication skills. Notably, early childhood education forms a foundation for the development of children into successful members of society. Hence, the most important factor for educators in early childhood is not necessary to know the content but the way young children learn. Thus, the understanding and identification of gender differences can support educators and teachers in differentiating instruction that addresses the individual learning needs of boys and girls.

References

Baron, A. S., Schmader, T., Cvencek, D., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2014). The gendered self-concept: How implicit gender stereotypes and attitudes shape self-definition. Gender and development, 109-132. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/59a7/8c59ba97aba60d5b047e02a6808d6e847b96.pdf

O'Connor, D., McCormack, M., Robinson, C., & O'Rourke, V. (2017). Boys and girls come out to play: Gender differences in children's play patterns. 9th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. https://library.iated.org/view/OCONNOR2017BOY

Peyre, H., Charkaluk, M. L., Forhan, A., Heude, B., Ramus, F., & EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study Group. (2017). Do developmental milestones at 4, 8, 12 and 24 months predict IQ at 5-6 years old? Results of the EDEN mother-child cohort. european journal of paediatric neurology, 21(2), 272-279. DOI:10.1016/j.ejpn.2016.11.001

Peyre, H., Hoertel, N., Bernard, J. Y., Rouffignac, C., Forhan, A., Taine, M., & EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study Group. (2019). Sex differences in psychomotor development during the preschool period: A longitudinal study of the effects of environmental factors and of emotional, behavioral, and social functioning. Journal of experimental child psychology, 178, 369-384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.09.002