Boys are made of frogs and snails. . .
Posted on Thu, Jul 15, 2010
How does that old saying go? Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails. In my own experience, I have found that mothers of boys know without a doubt that boys and girls are born different. More and more research is bearing this out.
Granted, as the mother of 2 boys, I am biased. But having seen hundreds of children in my classes over the years, there do seem to be some striking patterns. For example, girls are frequently more compliant and participative in classes (hmmm, does this suggest something about our educational philosophy? a topic for another time–). Boys tend to have a single focus, like cars or balls or trucks. This single-mindedness persists into adulthood–women can usually multi-task much more easily than men can.
But we have a unique opportunity to influence the development of our children’s brains when they are young. Learning disabilities are more prevalent in boys than in girls. This is because most learning disabilities are the result of one hemisphere of the brain (usually the right one) being deficient in some way. We can strengthen the connections between the two sides of our brains simply by crossing the midline of the body.
If you’ve been in a Village class with me, we do this every week when we criss-cross and have baby’s hand touch the opposite foot. The brain is an amazing thing and can compensate for all kinds of things, if given the opportunity to do so. So by crossing the midline, we’re helping one side of the brain compensate for the other in any areas that may be weaker.
For more information about this topic, check out this article I found: http://www.optionsforfamilies.org/blog/brain-development-is-the-difference-between-boys-and-girls-all-in-their-heads/