Do girls learn faster than boys?

[lsanchez]

Hi everyone!
I just had my first baby in October so he is about to turn 7 months.  I have already been reading to him and wanted to move into showing him some flash cards to expose him to many words.  I am just wondering - I have always heard that boys learn to speak slower than girls.  I would just like some input as to what to expect in his learning to speak timeline.  I know every child is different but I would just love to hear other BrillKids parents that have used this program with a boy.  The few videos I have viewed on this website of babies reading have been girls so I would just like to hear from you BOY parents.  Thank you in advance for ANY input!

[NPLight]

I can tell you about my personal experience of having fraternal twins, boy and girl. In our particular case, the answer is that, in general terms, yes. My daughter learns much faster than my son. The only clear exception is walking. He began at 8 months old and she did it at 12-13. In relation to reading, we used Little Reader and other resources from month 15 more or less. She learnt to read independently and phonetically in Spanish by 23 months old. She also began at that age reading in English, but mostly sightwords. Now they have 2 years 8 months and my son is still not reading anything. But I hang on there. With general knowledge there is almost no difference between them, in Math she is ahead but the difference is not that large as in reading. In music she was ahead at first, but now they are at a similar level. In writing and drawing, she is also ahead. 
Hope this helps, but this is only our particular case. In this forum we have read about a lot of very young boys reading, doing math or playing the piano very early.   

[Frukc]

I think, it depends on individual character and not on gender. My girl is very relationship-oriented, she wants someone talking to her
all the time. My son is more object-oriented, and he likes very creative but solitary play. As a result, my girl is much more advanced in language and related development than my boy. My boy reads earlier than my girl, and he is also ahead in math - but it is because I worked with him much more. Why I did it? Because I was worried about his language delay.

I think, we can generalize this to boys and girls. Often, boys are slower not because they are boys but because they prefer more solitary play, and are less interested in talking. With less talking, also the development of logical thinking can be slower. But it is not bad; it is outweighed by the development of creativity

[Tamsyn]

I don't know about faster, but I do think they learn differently.  My boys are more analytical about things.  Peter didn't read as early, but he's a great scientist now and loves science fiction.  My next girl loves to do art, crafts, and worksheets and is very motivated by things like stickers.  Patrick was my earliest reader yet.  He's a rambunctious, spunky kid, but he also loves to read and get some screen time.  Ruth is shy, loves to sing, and is my flashcard girl.  Bottom line, all kids are different. 

[Mandabplus3]

My two cents...to rock the boat 
Yep. In general terms academically and physically girls do seem to learn faster. I have had a lot of experience with kids under 5 and the girls stripped the boys most of the time.
Now before all the mums of boys get upset    My top three students this year are all boys! So clearly boys can be taught to excell. They just need a bit more of a push. Girls naturally seem to enjoy the things we test on in schools. Boys enjoy other things more and need a push to get good at the academic and fine motor skills. Once they have it they seem to enjoy the tasks as much as girls do.
Also worth noting is that boys do have strengths that girls struggle more with. Boys overall are better at puzzles, putting things together and making construction craft actually Stick! Also at mapping and visualising what can't be seen. From what I see I can't understand why boys don't excell more than girls in gross motor challenges. They spend way more time doing large motor physical stuff than girls but it clearly doesn't usually result in early excellence. Perhaps it's the quality of the practice that counts rather than the quantity in this case.
I wonder if I will read over this in 5 years time and smack myself in the he head for it? 

[Korrale4kq]

I agree with Manda! First I will say that all kids are different and all have strengths and weaknesses. But after lots of observation of the 0-6 crowd I conclude that boys and girls do develop differently. And girls do initially seem to learn faster and smarter. As Manda said girls seem to excel at the noticeable things often connected to school.
If you consider 2 children; one a verbose 2 year old that likes to chatter, the other a quiet secluded child that seems more interested in ramming a truck into a wall, iwhich child seems more "intelligent"? Or seem to be learning more, faster? In many cases it would be considered the chatty child as you can get a better idea of their development. This child is more likely to show what they know because they can talk about it.
In reality that quiet child could be soaking up everything, getting an understanding of the world around them via their own experiments, but just doesn't have the ability to show what they know.
I would say in about 90% of cases the chatty child is a girl. The other is a boy.

[PY]

oh yes!MY girl learned to recognized words two days after showing her, after 10 words she started to learn super fast she was 15 months at that time, by 2 years old she was reading every word. Now she is 6 and she reads a 4th grade level (she has been tested)! Just amazing, she blows her teachers away!
By the other hand my son who is 2 years old doesnt read a single word and I can tell he is most focused on the pictures more on the letter, he still loves to look at books everytime but not reading yet.we will see. i am starting brillkids with him,i need to be more consistent now, just like i was with my daughter.

[Tanikit]

I only have daughters, however I am one of fraternal twins and we differed a lot in the early years despite our IQs being almost identical (his rated a few points higher than mine) I was faster to walk and talk and also grew faster though he is now much taller than I am. I read earlier, spelt earlier and was better at both fine and gross motor activities earlier than he was. However I never caught him on learning how the vacuum cleaner worked (though I could pronounce the word better) and I had no clue how to take a radio apart when he was very clued up on it at a very early age. He beat me hands down with technology (he is in IT now). He was also more defiant and more likely to fight the system - so while I went to study further and got degrees, he quit school in grade 11 and worked his way up learning Maths he would never have coped with in school simply because he didn't see the point til he needed to learn it to accomplish something else.

So my answer is no - girls do not learn faster than boys - however they may outpace boys on certain things and certain ways of learning. I watched a boy at my DDs preschool - the teachers thought he was very behind on many skills and yet when someone sat with him and worked with the things he was interested in (mostly taking things apart) then you could see he was a bright little boy who was probably just not interested in coloring and painting and chatting - gee I wonder why that was - probably that darn Y chromosome. He wasn't learning slower, he was just learning differently.

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