Peculiarities of Boys' Development
Peculiarities of Boys' Development
How Do Growth and Weight Differ?
Some differences between girls and boys start to become noticeable in infancy. Boys are less responsive to faces and grow faster, gaining strength more quickly, though they perceive separation from their mother more acutely.
Motor Skills
When children begin to walk, the difference between girls and boys becomes even more apparent. Boys usually need more space for play and movement. They particularly enjoy grabbing objects and manipulating them, building high towers from blocks, while girls prefer playing on the floor.
It might seem strange, but boys often need movement to focus. Remember how boys sometimes walk around the room while trying to memorize a poem. Modern research shows that boys' brain activity in a resting state decreases significantly, while the same conditions hardly affect girls' brains. This leads to the conclusion: attempts to reduce physical activity to increase mental activity work better with girls, while boys' brains may perceive such a signal as a cue to stop working.
Brain Functioning
It is known that boys' bodies begin to produce testosterone even before birth. This hormone influences the growth and development of certain types of neurons, leading to changes in brain activity. Female sex hormones are also believed to affect brain development, but their role is much less studied.
Speech Development
Communicative Development
In kindergarten, boys tend to ignore new arrivals in the group and choose friends based on shared interests.
Studies show that parents hug and cuddle girls more often, even from infancy. Boys are talked to less and treated more strictly. Unfortunately, according to research, mothers punish boys more often and more harshly.
If the mother is the primary source of affection and care, she becomes the first model of love and tenderness for the boy. From the second year of life, when the child starts walking, the mother can firmly, without hurting or shaming the boy, establish boundaries in their relationship, and the boy will understand this for life. He will know that he holds a special place in his mother's heart.
When the mother teaches the boy with interest and pleasure, talks to him, it helps develop his speech skills and sociability. In the future, you will see how important this is for boys, as they need more help in mastering communication skills than girls do.
If during the first year or two of the boy's life, the mother falls into deep depression and is closed off from communication with the child, an aspect of sadness appears in his consciousness. If the mother is angry, hits, or hurts the boy, he begins to doubt that he is loved. Mothers need support and help from other family members to have the opportunity to rest, relax, and find time to communicate with the child. Take care of yourself to be able to take full care of the child.
The child should also learn that men are kind and interesting, that they can read books and help around the house.
Teaching Boys
What should you remember when organizing boys' education?
• Boys focus better on one subject.
• Boys better understand visual images.
• Boys need less eye contact, and forcing visual contact can even cause speech difficulties.
• Boys are better at identifying patterns.
• Boys are naturally more assertive and competitive, take risks more easily, and are less accepting of prohibitions.
• Boys notice details better.
• Boys need time to engage in new activities.
• Boys prefer physical games, while girls often enjoy word games.
Remember that while biological predispositions may guide a child's development, they should not determine it. The environment in which a child grows and the child's temperament have a significant impact. Biological features are just the first steps in the long journey of personality development. The experiences a child goes through affect their development and success even more than their innate abilities. This is why it's so important to understand what we fill our children's lives with.
