Early Language Development - are Boys and Girls different? by Louise Griffiths

Boys are underachieving in early years.  Latest data from the EYFSP 2022/23 (1) shows that 74.2% of girls reach a good level of development and only 60.6% of boys.  This continues across most educational indicators throughout their school years.  There is a normal range within which children acquire certain language milestones. There is no doubt that, in general, girls tend to be on the earlier end and boys on the later end of this range and we know from West Berkshire Ecat (Every Child a Talker) data that twice as many boys as girls are assessed as being at risk of delay.  The nature versus nurture debate is complicated, and it’s easy to make generalisations or to accept “it’s always like this” in terms of attainment.