September 24, 2018 | 11:56pm
Grade-school girls have consistently outperformed boys in reading skills over the past 27 years, a new study has found.
Girls in the United States have scored higher on standardized tests for reading and writing in the fourth grade — and have increased the gap in eighth and 12th grades, according to a review by researchers at Griffith University in Australia.
“The common thinking is that boys and girls in grade school start with the same cognitive ability, but this research suggests otherwise,” lead author David Reilly said. “Our research found that girls generally exhibit better reading and writing ability than boys as early as the fourth grade.”
The research team said the difference can be due to factors such as boys being more likely to have a learning disability.
Other research has shown that girls use both brain hemispheres for reading and writing, while boys typically rely on just one.
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