The Wonderful World of Girls

Presented by: Christine Broatch & Kitty Roberts

Gender Differences – A Hot TopicSince the late 1980’s an focus on research regarding differences between the male and female brain.

Brain scanning technology has provided many answers to questions once only speculated on.

Biological evidence shows that hormones and brain wiring are responsible for our innately different preferences, attitudes, and behaviour.

We will explore how biology impacts the little girls you work with and what we can do to support the “Wonderful World of Girls”.

Main Areas of the Brain

Girls Right Brain, Boys Left?

•Facts

•Deduction

•Words of a Song

•Practical

•Sees fine details

•Tunnel vision

•Intuition

•Spatial

•Multi-processing

•Tune of a song

•Sees big picture

•Wider peripheral vision

How Her Brain Grows

From Birth to 5 The brains of boys and girls are relatively alike at least in comparison to the

later stages of life Bodies look the same and you have to look closely to see physical,

emotional and mental differences The female brain grows quicker from the right to the left than the male. One

of the reasons for earlier language development is that the left hemisphere is where language development takes place

Both male and female brains are coded to develop neurotransmitter tracks in the brain. The quantity of these can differ.

The female brain is coded to secrete more serotonin which is directly related to greater impulse control.

The female brain is also coded to secrete more oxytocin which relates to play with care objects or babies.

The girls have accelerated development of the occipital lobe. Meaning she will take in more sensory data than the male

Practical ApplicationsBirth to Five Years

The girl develops more words faster and more coherent than boys. Research shows that this secretion rises when female humans and

primates are around a small baby, animal or other object requiring care.

Girls as young as one month are able to recognize the face of family members

Girls may tend to “physically calmer” than boys due to greater impulse control.

Girls are better able to distinguish a parent’s voice from background noise.

Girls are more sensitive to loud noises than boys. Girls seek “tactile longevity” to handle an object like a doll for longer

periods than boys. Seeing, hearing, smelling more than a boy at this age and enjoying

those senses. Girls are 2 – 4 times less likely to become injured than boys after the

age of two.

How Her Brain Grows

Six to Ten Years Old The brain is now greatly formed as research in the Early Years proves. The

foundation is laid and the rest of the construction continues to occur (example – the building of a house).

Countless brain patterns and structures are developed and defined by five years of age.

Five is a milestone age for the brain and the girl now has a stronger, more resilient brain.

This is a critical time for the preservation of brain development with bonding, protection from harmful messages, etc.

The limbic system is becoming more developed – the is where emotive processing and directional management of sensory, memory, stress, and other stimuli occurs.

Girls move more emotional material more quickly to the thinking sections of the brain than boys do.

At around eight to ten the hippocampus part of the brain is emerging, the main job of which is memory storage. Girls have a larger hippocampus than the boys.

Practical ApplicationSix to 10 Years Old

Girls are better able to control their emotions. Girls have a better memory with a higher level of multitasking function. Social relationships form a sense of self. Listening with both sides of the brain. Harder to turn brains off. Longer attention span. Intimacy/relationships extremely important. Girls internalize and focus on teacher feedback, positive and negative.

Why Do Girls/Boys Brain’s Differ?

This is based in evolution going back to days of the caveman, while men were hunters, females needed to gain superiority in left hemisphere development.

Females were needed to care for the children, gather food, calm down quickly, to think first and act second for the greater good of protecting the children.

The hippocampus helped them remember the intimate needs of their children.

They needed to be more sensory to hear babies cry, and to enjoy the tactile benefits of caring for them.

Common Gender Referenced Behaviours in

Preschool Settings

Boys Aggression Distraction Impatience Noisiness

Girls Whining Manipulation Sneakiness High Emotions

Girls Tend To

Have better hearing than boys and may find “loud” or repetitive noises distracting.

Are better at object discrimination, i.e. “What is it?”

Will focus on faces and things. “Girls draw nouns using warm colors.”

Use more of the advanced part of their brains, such as the cerebral cortex.

Can explain and describe their feelings. Are more verbal emotive.

Develop language and fine motor skills about 6 years earlier than boys.

Multitask well and make easy transitions. Friendships are focused on other girls.

Conversation is central to a friendship. Social hierarchies will destroy a friendship.

Self-revelation and sharing are precious part of a friendship.

Boys Tend To

Have worse hearing than girls may lose attention due to this

Are better at object location, “Where is it” Will focus on movement. “Boys draw verbs

using cold colors.” Use more of the primitive parts of their brains,

e.g. the hippocampus and amygdala. Find it difficult to talk about feelings. Are more spatial mechanical. Develop targeting

and spatial memory about 4 years earlier than girls.

Focus on a task and transition more slowly. Friendships are focused on a shared activity. Conversation is often unnecessary.

Social hierarchies build camaraderie and organize relationships.

Self-revelation is to be avoided if possible.

Brain-based Genetic Differences in Girls and Boys

By Leonard Sax

Often ask a teacher for help and enjoy a close relationship with a teacher.

Like to be faced, looked in the eye and smiled at.

Retain sensory memory details well and make good distinctions between colors

Deal with moderate stress, such as timed tests, less successfully.

Want to be with friends when under stress.

Feel “yucky” when faced with threat and confrontation. .

Rarely employ aggression playfully. Connect sex to other outcomes. Use landmarks to give directions. Prefer to read fiction—short stories and

novels. Have many friends if they bully and likely

bully someone they know.

May not ask for help to avoid being perceived as “sucking up” to a teacher.

Avoid eye contact and prefer you sit beside them.

Don’t retain sensory details or make color distinctions as well.

Deal with moderate stress well and may actually do better because of it.

Want to be alone when under stress. Feel excited when faced with threat and

confrontation. Often employ aggression playfully. Focus on the sexual activity itself. Use compass points to give directions. Prefer nonfiction—descriptions of real

events, action, and how things work. Have few friends if they bully and more

likely don’t know the person they attack.

Brain-based Genetic Differences in Girls and

Boys By Leonard Sax

If our brains were machines….

The Need for Intimacy and

the Reality of Current Times

When girls talk to each other, it activates mood boosting, stress reducing hormones (progesterone)

Vancouver Sun, June 6, 2009

In ancient times, girls were raised in tribes with many fellow females to interact with.

In our current “globalized” world, many families are geographically spread out. Western families are also smaller in numbers. Both of these lead to a lack of extended families.

Who do girls turn to fill this void? The older girl may rely on peers and media for sense of self – both can be “fickle”.

Rise of physical teen aggression amongst girls, researchers are citing, lack of family bonds, media, peers becoming their teachers of moral codes and values.

The rise of the internet, social networking sites, etc may have more influence on behaviours.

How Does Biology Apply to an Early Learning Environment?

As opposed to physical aggression, girls tend to internalize their anger and communicate feelings indirectly, through exclusion, gossip, and meanness. Girls may just refuse to sit next to someone in a circle, use the “you’re not coming to my birthday party”, don’t be so-and-so’s friend, etc.

A study by the University of Washington shows that mothers of preschoolers were less likely to intervene in instances of relational aggression (when girls were mean) than physical aggression (when boys hit each other). Does this apply to teachers as well?

To prepare a girl to function socially is to help her develop conflict resolution skills when she's really young, and to give her practice expressing herself.

Develop some flexible guidelines for dealing with exclusionary behavior with ideas of how

girls can play together so that they respect friendships without excluding each other

When the teacher's see this happening, they should talk with the kids. Support the child who feels left out while helping the insiders develop empathy.

More – How Does this Biology Apply to an Early Learning Environment?

You are My Best Friend Preschool girls have an enormous capacity to bond. and form attachments that have a

great deal of importance. They really 'fall in love.' A girl's best friend at preschool is her anchor, and everything becomes right when that friend walks in the classroom door. It is recommend you don't force friendships on girls, but you can encourage them to reach beyond their social sphere and become comfortable in various situations and with a range of people.

The Challenge with Three’s Having a “best friend” can make a young child feel very secure. In a dramatic play, both

children know who they like to pretend to be and how the plot should progress. It can be hard for them to allow a third child into the mix. They may think the third person will change the rules or won't know how to play it the right way. When helping a third child join in, The teacher might begin by suggesting the new player ask, 'Who can I pretend to be?' If she encounters resistance, the teacher might ask the other two, 'How can you help her join the game in a way that won't spoil what you're playing’?

Girls Like Co-operation Boys like action and competition, which is often why girls do not approach boys to play.

They may be intimidated by the threat of physical reaction to taking an object away or they may find play too loud or noisy. You see boys and girls beginning to segregate themselves in play and break away from each other in later preschool years.

Reading List Brizendane, Louann, The Female Brain, Morgan Road Books, 2006 Gray, John, Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus, HarperCollins, 1992,

NewYork Gurian, Michael, Wonderful World of Girls, Pocket Books, 2002, New York Gurian,Michael, The Wonder of Boys, Pocket Books, 1996, New York Pease, Barbara and Allan, Why Men Don’t Listen, Broadway Books, 1998, New

York. Sax, Leonard, Why Gender Matters, Doubleday, 2005, New York Simmons, Rachel, Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression, Houghton

Mifflin Harcourt, 2003, Chicago