Differences between girls and boys in emerging language skills: Evidence from 10 language communities
Abstract
The present study explored gender differences in emerging language skills in 13,783 European children from 10 non‐English language communities. It was based on a synthesis of published data assessed with adapted versions of the MacArthur‐Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) from age 0.08 to 2.06. The results showed that girls are slightly ahead of boys in early communicative gestures, in productive vocabulary, and in combining words. The difference increased with age. Boys were not found to be more variable than girls. Despite extensive variation in language skills between language communities, the difference between girls and boys remained. This suggests that the difference is caused by robust factors that do not change between language communities.
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These findings are consistent with reports from large N studies of a female advantage in both verbal and nonverbal functioning among low-risk children between 1 and 3 years of age.
“These findings are consistent with reports from large N studies of a female advantage in both verbal and nonverbal functioning among low-risk children between 1 and 3 years of age [36–39].”
From Early sex differences are not autism-specific: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC) study (2015) · cites this paper as [36]
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- Authors
- Eriksson, M., Marschik, P. B., Tulviste, T., Almgren, M., Pérez Pereira, M., Wehberg, S., Marjanovič‐Umek, L., Gayraud, F., Kovacevic, M., & Gallego, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Gävle (SE)
- Medical University of Graz (AT)
- University of Tartu (EE)
- University of the Basque Country (ES)
- University of Southern Denmark (DK)
- University of Ljubljana (SI)
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Eriksson, Mårten
- Venue
- British Journal of Developmental Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 326-343
- ISSN
- 0261-510X (ISSN-L)
- 2044-835X
- OpenAlex
- W1910113017
- Cited by
- 438
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 14.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Developmental Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Austrian Science Fund
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Hearing Impairment and Communication
- Keywords
- gender differences, language development, early childhood language, gestural communication, vocabulary acquisition, word combinations, MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, cross-cultural comparison, European children
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Analysis of Variance, Child, Preschool, Communication, Europe, Female, Gestures, Humans, Infant, Language, Language Development, Male, Sex Factors, Vocabulary, Comprehension
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