Gender Identity in Preschoolers

Gender Defined

• Human sex usually refers to male or female, although sometimes babies are born with abnormal sexual characteristics. However, gender can encompass a broader range of choices, which, according to Dr. Leonard Sax, author of "Why Gender Matters," can include homosexuality, lesbianism, transsexuals and transvestites, or even boys who prefer to play with girls, and girls who would rather play with boys. Understanding gender can help parents and teachers give the preschoolers in their care emotional security and a good foundation for future learning.

Nature, Nurture and Gender

• Emily W. Kane, professor of sociology and chair of the division of social sciences at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, says that gender has four roles. They are the gender assigned at birth, gender role expected by the society a child is born into, personal gender identity, and the gender role socially perceived by others. When there is a mismatch between the gender role in which a preschooler is comfortable and the way people expect the child to behave, it can cause emotional difficulty and learning problems for the child.

Sex-Linked Traits

• Sax proposes that many of the learning difficulties currently encountered by boys in school begin because parents and teachers do not understand certain physical differences between girls and boys. He says that statistically speaking, boys hear and see differently from girls. They have an innate need for large motor activity and learn better with hands-on activities. This means that in a classroom that has a large number of preschool boys, you are likely to see a lot of movement, rough and tumble play, building with blocks then knocking them down. Conversely, girls are more likely to spend time talking and playing cooperatively.

Gender Management with Preschoolers

• What this means at home and in preschool settings is that parents and teachers need to be aware that boys and girls do not necessarily learn in the same way. You might need to speak more loudly for boys than for girls, for example. Boys and girls might both play with dolls, but they will probably play with them in very different ways. Sax points out that girls like to make colorful drawings but boys are likely to prefer monochrome drawings with lots of action.