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Growing great boys
The greatest tragedy is to view boys as simply noise machines - uncaring, uncommunicative and uninvolved - whereas deep within the soul of every little boy is the hero; a little Huck Finn or Tarzan wanting to pit his strength physically against the odds, and longing for approval and appreciation of his uniqueness
Extract taken from Growing Great Boys by parenting expert Ian Grant
The differences between boys and girls
Many experiments have highlighted the different ways used by little girls and boys to relate to others. Even before they are born, baby boys are more active physically. After eight weeks' gestation, testosterone begins to kick in and starts to bring about physiological changes in boys. Newborn girls will concentrate on faces and language, while baby boys will be attracted to moving objects.
Language development is slower in boys, and many parents will observe that they use sounds, such as motor noises, far more than actual words. In their developing speech, nearly all of the sounds little girls make tend to be verbally communicative, whereas with boys only something like 40 per cent are verbal; the rest is just noises.
Boys are stronger, with 30 per cent more muscle bulk on average than girls. They have more red blood cells, and need more physical activity. Their brains grow more slowly, with fewer connections between the right and left hemispheres. (This is why boys' speech faculties develop more slowly than do those of girls, and why men recover more slowly from strokes!)
Researchers in the USA undertook a fascinating experiment. They left boys and girls together in a room, with only Barbie dolls to play with. They had assumed the children would play similarly with the dolls. But their observations proved surprising. While girls cuddled, dressed and manicured the dolls, the boys were only interested in finding out how well the Barbies would work as torpedoes, bombs or airplanes!
This activity is actually related to how boys' brains function. Boys tend to explore their environment by running, jumping, touching and opening, because their brain is structured in a way that is more orientated to the external world than the internal.
Even the way boys show happiness and distress, often through physical 'acting out', is different, and the instruction to 'use words not fists' can be less simple than it sounds for a little boy to process.
A young boy's brain matures more slowly than a girl's, so he may not be ready for school as soon. Studies also show that a poor start may leave him struggling for years, so if his parents feel he is not socially or intellectually ready, holding a boy back may sometimes be appropriate.
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