I’ve been reading books about boys, such as “the wonder of boys” and steve biddulph books. It seems they have differences from girls in their brain structure, which seem to imply we might have to think of different ways to teach them.
Apparently girls have greater cerebral cortexes (I think), and also the connections made prenatally between the left and right hemispheres are more intricate, hence girls can think about and do more than one thing at a time. Boys are more right brained, girls are equal.
Makes me wonder how we can use these differences to our advantage in right brain learning.
I also heard somewhere that if a person is left-handed their brains are swapped the opposite way.
I read that in tests boys learned better if information was presented to one eye, not both!! (should we do flashcards with patches?)
I read, and agree with this, that the current school system of sitting quietly at desks is not really designed for boys… they are too active and like to learn by doing, by moving…kinesthetically. How can we factor that into flashcard learning? My son certainly didnt learn to read as easily as my girls, and is more fidgety. I wished I could have figured out some way to have taught him in some way he could learn easily.
We have foam letters we use in the bath, they stick to the side of the tub. These are some of our best sessions, because he is semi-contained!
We also play ‘fetch’. So I will hold up the word ‘car’ and he goes to get his toy car. This doesn’t last long sometimes though as he just starts playing with the thing! lol
We also write in big letters on the whiteboard, and draw pictures. He likes the size I think…
I guess the multisensory method would be beneficial as well…come to think of it so will the right brain method if it’s fast … being boys and more right-brained, they’ll love the speed, won’t they?
This is a very interesting topic. Reminds me of a program on National Geographic called “My Brilliant Brain”, which also touches on this subject. There, they had groups of boys and girls try to navigate a maze, and boys would tend to do better, because apparently they have a better sense of the whole picture (mapping out the maze in their minds), whereas girls would tend to focus in on the details and landmarks to guide them.
Of course, the above is a generalization, and doesn’t mean all boys and girls are like that.
apparently boys like utilizing the space they are in, and building things, so using blocks and lego and large alphabet shapes that can be stacked and knocked over is probably practical…
I have a boy and a girl. I do agree that boys tend to learn things with interest if it presented in an animated and action oriented manner. My boy refuses to sit in one place when i show him the flash cards, But Prof Shichida says don’t give up. He may be moving but he’s still listening to your voice and he is seeing the cards even though its momentary.