From the start, Baranek made it clear that while boys were the main focus and also present the bigger problems, the issue she was analysing was more the left or ‘masculine’ side of the brain and the impact its slower rate of development (compared with the ‘feminine’ right side of the brain) on a child’s development, boy or girl.

It’s a fact that girls continue to outperform boys at every stage of their development from key stage 1 to higher education. Baranek read out some stark statistics that reveal the extent of the gap that exists and among them were:

Boys are four times more likely to be excluded from school than girls.
Boys are four times more likely to have ADHD
Three quarters of all children with speech delay issues will be boys
Around three quarters of all children with any learning difficulty will be boys.
Four out of five parents seeking help or support are doing so for boys

The 75% figure is a common denominator in all matters of comparative areas, with boys accounting for around that percentage of school dropouts, underachievers, violence in adolescence, pedestrian fatalities, drug use and suicides.

The slower development of the left side of the brain means that when boys arrive at every level of their measured development, they will be behind girls. Only 52% of boys arrive at school with a ‘good’ level of development, compared to 69% of girls and Baranek asked whether the room felt that the differences in development stages were being recognised and addressed effectively in childcare settings.

“Already, at the end of reception year boys are behind and that gap has widened in the last year because although boys did slighter better, girls did better still. It’s pretty clear that the more we can give them at the very beginning, the better foundation they will have going forward,” she said. “Are we [nannies] as tuned in to the needs of boys as girls? Do you understand how different developmental process can impact on a boy in your setting?”

A recent OECD report concluded that more needs to be done to build greater equality into the early years and beyond, she said. “It is not sufficient to say everything is open to all children in the early years; even at that age boys and girls are likely to want to choose different activities.”

She asked the audience to select some words they would use to describe boys generally and the response ranged from frustrating and loud through to compassionate and devoted. “It is really important to think about boys in a positive way,” said Baranek. “I would lay a bet that the most disruptive children in most of your settings will be boys. But how many of their problems happen when they are indoors and how many when they are outdoors?”

To try and explain her point, and moving on to gender stereotyping, Baranek played a fascinating clip from the TV show Bang Goes The Theory, which explored the Nature v Nurture debate and proved in its own small sample size study that there may be a balance of the two in play.

In one experiment, babies were presented to adults in a controlled environment and the adult was asked to play with them. Unknown to them was that the girls were dressed as boys and vice versa and without exception, the adult offered the child a toy that would stereotypically be associated with their sex.

A second experiment took place in a monkey enclosure at a zoo, where there was no obvious stereotypes in play and the adults had no input. A bunch of toys where emptied out into the enclosure and amazingly, the female monkeys went for the dolls and the cuddly toys, while the male monkeys played with the helicopters and trucks.

This is down to the way the different sides of the brain work and the programme surmised that this process is part of our evolutionary instinct and harks back many centuries, to when the male was expected to move and hunt and the woman was generally in a cave looking after the children. So, while boys are often fascinated by motion and rough and tumble, girls are more likely to want to look after something or do something less active and more quiet.

“The way the male brain develops can disrupt the balance of the male character. Cavemen were hunters, they were all about wide-open spaces, running about, weapons and defending their territory. Society may have changed, but the way our brains develop hasn’t necessarily changed with it” said Baranek.

The slower development of the left hand side of the brain in boys generally means they lag behind in motor skills – things like sequencing, verbal ability and information processing, so the oft-ridiculed inability to multitask in men is actually formed at a very early age.

Boys have difficulty separating talking and moving, expressing their own emotions in words or reading emotions in others, and they find it hard to process information. They like to construct and deconstruct; they are more likely to express themselves through actions and their play is far more likely to involve the rough and tumble and risk taking elements.

None of this will be a huge surprise to our nannies of course, but it may shed some light on some of the peculiar problems boys in your setting present.

But how can your childcare setting deal with the differences between boys and girls and provide both girls and boys with what they need? This is where a gender neutral approach comes in, suggested Baranek. “One of the ways is to provide open ended resources; lots of natural resources and holistic play opportunities for instance, that allow children to make their own decisions on what to do with them.

“Cardboard boxes are the best open-ended resource there is – they can be anything the children want, all they need is their own imagination. The key is that rather than you making their role-play environment for them, you give them the tools they need to create the role-play area they want. You may find that they still conform to stereotypes in the way they use what you give them, but then it’s their choice to do that, not yours.”

Aside from role play, role models are important too, she added. “If there’s no male role model in your setting, then you need to provide that role for the boys [you look after]. They need it in a controlled way – give them the room to enjoy outdoor space and use it with them creatively. Boys prefer to be involved rather than watching, so if you’re demonstrating something, get them involved in it and they are more likely to listen to what you say.

“When a boy is physically active then so is his brain and he is therefore more likely to learn outside. Decide what drives them and motivates them – most of it will stem from their fantasies [superheroes, flying and guns.] Embed that in your planning – give them the will to engage, regardless of their gender.”