Boy’s language skills just as good as girls’

A lot of people believe that girls have better verbal ability than boys – but the latest findings from Child of the New Century show that’s not necessarily the case.

At the Age 11 Survey, 13,200 Children of the New Century completed an activity where they were read sets of words and asked how they were related. For the first time, boys and girls performed about the same in these tasks – in fact, if anything, boys did a little bit better on average.

“The young people’s vocabulary has been measured since age 3”, the researchers explained. “Age 11 is the first time we’re seeing boys doing better than girls. While only a small difference, it remained even when taking into account other factors that might affect their verbal skills.”