By Renee Martinez
Now that it’s summer and I’m home with all my boys, I’ve had the chance to observe them more when I’m still in a good mood (as opposed to the hours after 5pm when I start getting tired and crabby and begin to lose patience). It’s been raining all week and unfortunately, I feel like we’re on some sort of lock down. It’s beginning to get on my nerves. Nonetheless, having a few play dates with friends and their girl siblings, I’m amazed by the differences between preschool boys and girls. Boys are really different from girls. Here are some things I’ve noticed (that are also supported by educators and scholars including Dr. Michael Thompson, Michael Gurian and more)
- When compared to girls of the same chronological age, boys are developmentally more immature than girls.
- Boys cry more easily and are harder to calm.
- Boys are more impulsive than girls and are developmentally immature.
- Boys are not as able to engage in multi-task behavior.
- Boys do not hear as well as girls.
- Boys express fear later than girls, and less often.
- Boys are more physically active.
- Boys are more adept at keeping track of moving objects
- Boys have a harder time processing emotions than do girls. Therefore, adjustment after an emotionally charged situation is more difficult for boys. This lag time can interfere with the learning process.
- With boys, parents need to recognize that developmental immaturity doesn’t mean their son won’t be a healthy or loving man. Boys will mature, just at a slower rate.
- Boys prefer looking at groups of faces rather than individual ones.
- Research has found that mothers treated sons with more warmth and permissiveness than they did daughters.
Additional resources:
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
