I hate to say it, but Boys and Girls ARE different.
Nobody Said Parenting Was Going To be Easy.
I’m sure I’m going to catch a lot of grief about this, but the facts are indisputable. Boys and Girls are different. We know this already. But did you know that, structurally, Boy’s and Girl’s BRAINS are different.
Neuroimaging is a fairly recent medical procedure. The MRI was developed in the 1970’s. This was the first step in using imaging to see what was going on within the Human body. The MRI has proven to be an immensely versatile imaging technique. The MRI is most prominently used in diagnostic medicine and biomedical research.
the fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) was developed in the mid 1990’s. Since then, our ability to actually SEE the brain has grown exponentially. We can SEE in REAL TIME what parts of the brain are being used and which aren’t. This process is referred to as neuroimaging. We can actually “map” the brain. The advances in technology have gone so far that they are working on mapping a single neuron!
First, a little anatomy lesson:
The prefrontal cortex brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, moderating social behavior, and moderating certain aspects of speech and language. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes).
Subcortical structures are a group of diverse neural formations deep within the brain which include the diencephalon, pituitary gland, limbic structures and the basal ganglia. They are involved in complex activities such as memory, emotion, pleasure and hormone production.
A primary function of the putamen is to regulate movements at various stages (e.g. preparation and execution) and influence various types of learning. The thalamus has several functions, such as relaying of sensory signals, including motor signals to the cerebral cortex and the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness.
The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation.
In humans, the cerebellum plays an important role in motor control. The human cerebellum does not initiate movement, but contributes to coordination, precision, and accurate timing.
The amygdala has shown to perform a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making and emotional responses (including fear, anxiety, and aggression).
In males, the prefrontal cortex, a center of decision making in the brain, is still incomplete at age 12.
Male brains, are more often at rest in the brain stem, which directs fight or flight response (rather than more in the limbic system for females, promoting communication). This may make males more likely to take physical action if given a threat stimulus.
The female amygdala grows at a faster rate than males, reaching it’s full growth potential by 1.5 years. But, males have a larger amygdala in the long run, a center for processing anger and fear. This makes males more aggressive.
Females show enhanced information recall compared to males. This may be due to the fact that females have a more intricate evaluation of risk–scenario contemplation, based on a prefrontal cortical control of the amygdala.
Males tend to have a larger cerebellum, resulting in better sensory perception, coordination, and motor control; coupled with the higher levels of spinal fluid in the male system, messages between the brain and body tend to move more quickly and with less impulse control in males.
The limbic system, which contains structures including the amygdala and hippocampus, has fewer connections in males to verbal processing areas, giving them less access to emotively descriptive language and less speed than females in responding verbally to stress and highly emotional situations.
Female resting brain is significantly more active than the male resting brain.
Girls are more efficient multi-taskers than boys.
Males prefer mechanical and structural thinking.
Cerebral and gray matter volume in the frontal and parietal lobes peak earlier in girls than in boys.
Females’ reading comprehension and writing ability consistently exceed that of males, on average. They outperform males in tests of fine-motor coordination and perceptual speed. They’re more adept at retrieving information from long-term memory.
Males, on average, can more easily juggle items in working memory. They have superior visuospatial skills: They’re better at visualizing what happens when a complicated two- or three-dimensional shape is rotated in space, at correctly determining angles from the horizontal, at tracking moving objects and at aiming projectiles.
The two hemispheres of a females’ brain talk to each other more than a males’ do. In a 2014 study, University of Pennsylvania researchers imaged the brains of 428 male and 521 female youths and found that the females’ brains consistently showed more strongly coordinated activity between hemispheres, while the males’ brain activity was more tightly coordinated within local brain regions. This finding tracks closely with others’ observations that the corpus callosum — the white-matter cable that crosses and connects the hemispheres — is bigger in women than in men and that women’s brains tend to be more bilaterally symmetrical than men’s.
A recent study established that boys and girls 9 to 17 months old — an age when children show few if any signs of recognizing either their own or other children’s sex — nonetheless show marked differences in their preference for stereotypically male versus stereotypically female toys.
Okay John….what the heck does all of this mean?
Well, it means a couple of things.
1) It means that we CAN NOT expect our precious 2 year old BOY to behave the same way our darling 5 year old GIRL did when she was 2.
2) It means they are going to, not only, ACT differently, they are going to LEARN differently. We have nearly closed the math/science gender gap in education for girls by using more verbal functioning—reading and written analysis—to teach such spatial-mechanical subjects as math, science, and computer science . Now we need to adjust classrooms to better suit boys' learning patterns if we are to deal with the gaps in grades, discipline, and reading/writing that threaten to close many boys out of college and out of success in life.
3) It means that when our SON makes incredibly bad IMPULSE decisions, we have to take a moment and realize that he does not have a fully developed prefrontal cortex. That is NOT to say that our bundle of energy should not learn right from wrong.
4) It means that when our DAUGHTER wants to talk about her feelings, we have to LISTEN (not pass it off on Mom).
5) It means the we (YES, WE) have to be part of the solution in making sure our kids, girls and boys, have the proper learning strategies in place. WE must be advocates for our kids in their schooling. We MUST be advocates for our kids when it comes to behavioral and disciplinary actions as well.
This is the first blog post in a series of posts that will address the differences in our children’s learning. We are just scratching the surface on figuring out how our sons and daughters think, learn and grow differently.
BE IMPACTFUL!