Girls already have a well-established educational lead over boys by the time they start school, a study claims.
The study of 15,000 UK children suggests girls are two months ahead of boys in tests of verbal, non-verbal and visual skills by the age of five.
Girls outperform boys at all levels of education in the UK - from the age of seven to higher education.
The study from the Institute of Education in London suggests that trend begins before they even reach school.
The researchers also found that girls were doing better than boys by the age of three.
It also found girls had fewer behaviour problems than boys, and those children with better behavioural development tended to have a greater ability to learn.
They were assessed in their own homes by specially trained interviewers.
The researchers took three assessments involving vocabulary, picture similarities and pattern construction, measuring children's visual, spatial and verbal skills.
Family life
The researchers found children living in different family circumstances also tended to show different levels of development.
Children with two working parents tended to do better than others. They were four months ahead on vocabulary and two months ahead on visual tests.
And children of those with no qualifications were considerably behind average on each of the three measures.
On average, they were four months behind in picture tests, five months behind on pattern construction and more than a year behind in vocabulary.
Those in step-families were five months behind the average in picture similarity tests, while those with lone parents were two months behind.
This report on child cognition and behaviour was published as part of a much wider study by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, called the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the development of youngsters born in the first two years of this century.
The study of 15,000 UK children suggests girls are two months ahead of boys in tests of verbal, non-verbal and visual skills by the age of five.
Girls outperform boys at all levels of education in the UK - from the age of seven to higher education.
The study from the Institute of Education in London suggests that trend begins before they even reach school.
The researchers also found that girls were doing better than boys by the age of three.
It also found girls had fewer behaviour problems than boys, and those children with better behavioural development tended to have a greater ability to learn.
They were assessed in their own homes by specially trained interviewers.
The researchers took three assessments involving vocabulary, picture similarities and pattern construction, measuring children's visual, spatial and verbal skills.
Family life
The researchers found children living in different family circumstances also tended to show different levels of development.
Children with two working parents tended to do better than others. They were four months ahead on vocabulary and two months ahead on visual tests.
And children of those with no qualifications were considerably behind average on each of the three measures.
On average, they were four months behind in picture tests, five months behind on pattern construction and more than a year behind in vocabulary.
Those in step-families were five months behind the average in picture similarity tests, while those with lone parents were two months behind.
This report on child cognition and behaviour was published as part of a much wider study by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, called the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the development of youngsters born in the first two years of this century.
BBC News / UK
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