Female adults had a higher response rate to language blocks initiated by
infant girls than boys during the newborn period and at 44 weeks» PMA.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging has shown that mothers, but not fathers, have increased brain cortical activation in specific language processing areas when listening to infant - directed speech, suggesting that mothers have an intent to communicate and the difference in neural processing is experience - dependent.24 The mothers spoke more to
infant girls than boys in early infancy.
Not exact matches
Even as an
infant,
boys will have a tendency to display subtly more aggressive behavior
than girls.
Boys may differ from
girls and breast fed
infants tend to start spoon - feeding later
than those who are not breast fed.
A healthy baby
boy will weigh between 14 1⁄2 and 17 1⁄2 pounds at 8 months;
infant girls normally weigh about half a pound less
than infant boys.
For example, studies of newly born
infants found that
girls attended more to a female face
than infant boys, whereas
boys attended more to a moving object, such as a mobile.
Male adults responded more frequently to
infant boys than infant girls, but the difference did not reach statistical significance.
The rate of birth injuries is higher among baby
boys (about 6.6 per every 1,000
infants born)
than for baby
girls (about 5.1 per every 1,000).
Typically the wait for an
infant girl can be longer
than for an
infant boy, as many requests are made for little
girls.
Comment: Female older siblings are far more likely
than male older siblings to be given child care responsibilities while young; teenage
girls are far more likely
than teenage
boys to hold childcare and babysitting jobs; new mothers are far more likely to have prepared for parenthood by reading pregnancy - to - parenting articles and books as well as talking with (and spending social time with) primary caregiving women friends and relatives and their children; the ever - present months - long pregnancy itself initiates mothers into a mindset of habitual constant awareness of child - whereabouts; and various biological and hormonal factors make mothers more responsive to routine
infant cues (other
than severe distress cries.)
The sex difference in play parenting is related, in part, to the fact that
girls are assigned child - care roles, especially for
infants, much more frequently
than are
boys throughout the world (Whiting & Edwards, 1988).