Part II. Do Little Girls Mature Faster than Little Boys? Our Answer: Yes

Part II in a series exploring gender differences in child development. This week: ages 1-7

Last week we compared the developmental milestones of baby girls and boys, and concluded that among babies, popular sentiment (boys lag behind girls) holds little truth. This news was received with disbelief by many of the moms who read about it on our Facebook fan page. So it’s interesting to see that when we look beyond babyhood, there is clear evidence to back up their incredulity:  according to our data, girls do indeed take the lead — between the ages of 1 and 7.

Here’s the story:

Part I. Sugar and Spice vs. Snips and Snails: Do Baby Girls Develop More Quickly than Boys?

Part I in a series exploring gender differences in child development

It happens everyday in your neighborhood playground: a friendly question posed by one parent to another (My, she’s a good walker. How old is she?) quickly leads to unsolicited reassurances: Oh, well he is a boy. They take longer to start walking. Or My daughter was an early talker, too. I’m so glad I have a girl.

You’d think little boys are Cro Magnons to little girls’ upright humans. Are these casually-repeated beliefs about boys and girls even based on the facts?

Here at Circle of Moms, we have access to a tremendous amount of mom-reported data: moms have filled out the milestones their children attained, along with their children’s ages at the time, for over 300,000 children.  And if you believe the general stream of playground lore (that boys lag behind girls in most of their critical early milestones) the actual data might surprise you.