Baby Talk Counts

It’s a proven fact that the mere presence of babies can turn normal, functioning adults into blabbering idiots who suddenly feel the need to gesticulate wildly and constantly shift voice intonation while describing something as simple as “that big doggy over there!” But new research suggests that exactly what we blabber may be influenced by the sex of the young child we’re blabbering at – details that could have a long-term impact on child development.

In a new study at the University of Delaware, researchers found that parents talk about “number concepts” twice as much to male toddlers as to female toddlers. According to the study: “For cardinal-numbers speech, in which a number is attached to an obvious noun reference — ‘Here are five raisins’ or ‘Look at those two beds’ — the difference was even larger. Mothers were three times more likely to use such formulations while talking to boys.”

The study was based on observations of parents speaking to their children aged between 22 and 27 months, meaning that girls may be exposed to less math than are boys before they are even able to count to “ten” – imagine the size of the gap that exists by the time they are eighteen and signing up for Calculus!

Such research flies in the face of those who would claim that lower levels of participation and achievement of girls in math are due to some inherent lack of ability or interest in females. In a previous blog, I talked about children’s exposure to negative stereotypes around girls’ math abilities, including teachers who may inadvertently pass on their own math anxieties to girls or clothing companies that try to play off such biases with un-clever and sexist slogans. This study adds to this growing list of identifiable ways in which girls and women are conditioned to avoid considering their potential for achievement in math.

In today’s economy, where the growth of high-wage jobs are often in technical fields that require advanced math skills, encouraging women and girls to pursue math is critical to advancing women’s economic security and narrowing the wage gap. The fact that moms and dads may be subconsciously encouraging their sons in math more than their daughters, even when they are only toddlers, illustrates the need to identify and address the myriad factors that influence girls’ participation and success in math.