Developmental Differences Between Girls and Boys

10 Developmental Differences Between Girls And Boys

While every child develops at his or her own pace there are certain developmental differences between girls and boys that do stand out. Here are some developmental differences between girls and boys.

10 Developmental Differences Between Girls and Boys

  1. Physical Growth

Girls and boys actually grow at a similar rate until elementary school. Girls start growing at a fast pace in late elementary school and the boys then catch up and overtake growing taller than girls.

  1. Onset Of Puberty

Boys and girls hit puberty at different times. Girls hit puberty at an earlier age than boys. Some girls begin puberty as young as eight years old, but others as late as twelve years old.

Boys usually start hitting puberty at the earliest only around the nine year old mark.

  1. Verbal Skills

Girls usually start talking much earlier than boys do. They also have a higher vocabulary and much more complex understanding of language than boys.

This extends right to school years where in general girls have better spelling, writing, reading and overall language skills than boys.

  1. Gross Motor Skills

Boys are known to be more active than girls in general and they show more advanced gross motor skills such as running, jumping and balancing.

  1. Fine Motor Skills

Girls show more skill than boys with fine motor skills such as writing and holding a pen.


  1. Spatial Skills

This is one of the major differences between the developmental differences in girls and boys. Boys have a much better grasp of spatial skills. Girls seem to struggle more with boys excelling in this from the age of nine years on.

  1. Hand Eye Coordination

Boys generally have a better grasp of hand eye coordination skills probably due to the fact that their gross motor skills and spatial skills are more advanced than girls.

  1. Handling And Understanding Emotions

Girls tend to learn how to understand and handle their emotions faster than boys. This could be a result of girls being able to communicate easier than boys. Girls tend to express their emotions verbally while boys express themselves physically.

  1. Sensory And Cognitive Development

Before the age of three years old girls tend to have more advanced skills in memory, touch, hearing, smell and vision.

After the age of three years old this gap gets narrowed when the boys skills advance with hand eye coordination and spatial skills.

  1. Potty Training

When it comes to potty training girls vs boys the girls tend to take the lead here, starting potty training much earlier than boys. They not only start earlier but they tend to master the skill in less time with fewer accidents than boys.

When children grow up into adults there are often differences between them as men and women. Some of these are because often men and women do have aptitudes for different things.

However, a lot of differences in adults come about from gender stereotyping while the child is growing up.

It is interesting to note how men and women very often seem to gravitate towards certain careers.

This is true not only in the workplace, but also in education. For example some statistics from the team at DevelopIntelligence highlight the large gap between male and female students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields at school.

What developmental differences between girls and boys have you noticed?

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17 comments

  1. Very interesting post and i totally agree cause i could see the development differences between my cousins boy and girl.

    • Marisca I have a pigeon pair so it is very noticeable for me, especially the language differences! My son took so much longer to start speaking and I so wanted to start talking to him. Now he is chatting away at three years old.

  2. i only have a boy hope to have a girl also them this post will help alot

  3. I have to say in my own opinion I agree that girls mature quicker than boys but not necessarily go through pubity sooner. my son started pubity at age 9 and I was beyond shocked but dealt with it then the hairs started as well as the under arm… But maybe its just my son

  4. I have to two boys but I noticed in the family one of the girl gets her period at the age 9 shame she cry a lots that day thinking die is hurt until my grandmother explain it to her

  5. I have both and it will be helpful to me thank you

  6. I think if you compare your boy and girl to these 10 differences yes you will notice it my boy for some reason are faster then my best vriends little girl where my son had 2 teeth at 6 months her little girl only got 2 at 8 months at 8 months my boy have 4 her girl is older then 9 months now and only got 4 more ontop. She crawled at nearly 10 months my boy is busy exploring and i bet he will crawl at 9 months already.

    • Interesting ? article I have 2 sons and I always wondered why my nieces were more ahead of my boys now it makes sense even with puberty… Talking etc ???? I just had a big laugh by myself.
      Thank you for this article.

  7. This is so true because I’ve experienced it with my girl and boy

  8. I can definitely agree with the fine motor skills in boys being weaker. My son is not a fan of any sort of colouring or cutting. And having worked with kids alot of boys have messy handwriting

  9. My daughter is very strong and aggressive. She develops like a boy and she’s messy too. I hope it gets better.

  10. Very interesting and helpful it will assist us parents not to be difficult and compare kids. I now understand that the development between the two genders differs. Thank you

  11. I went through all, but the girls are wild and boys is passive today huge difference between them ecspecialy the one twin she was early before the other with most of her development.but now they boy in the same track and very active

    • Lynne Huysamen

      I found a huge difference between my girl and my boy! My daughter was so quick to talk and walk, and so much more independent. Even now at 8 years old my son still wants me to tie his shoelaces, my daughter has been doing her own shoelaces since about 4 years old!

  12. This was very insightful

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