A new federal study on learning differences between boys and girls has found that female students outperform their male counterparts in several areas, including communication skills and behaviour, at the age of 5.

The Statistics Canada study, based on information collected in 2002-03, found that girls tended to be more ready to learn at five years old than boys.

They also scored higher in communication skills, attention, behaviour, copying and using symbols, and in independence in dressing.

Boys were rated above girls in only one of 11 measures -- curiosity.

On the other hand, the study determined that girls and boys did not differ in their understanding of receptive vocabulary, which is the vocabulary understood by children when they hear the words spoken.

Similarly, they did not differ in work effort, co-operative play, independence in cleanliness, and in number knowledge.

But the researchers found that gender was only one dimension influencing the results.

Income

The study discovered family income also played a major role in a child's readiness to learn.

In six of 11 measures, children from lower income households were less ready to learn than their counterparts who lived in more affluent households.

"In other words, children from lower income households were less ready to learn," Statistics Canada said in its report.

The aspects of readiness to learn where children from lower income households did not do as well included: receptive vocabulary, communication skill, knowledge of numbers, copying and using symbols, attention and co-operative play.

However, the study found no differences in other measures, including a child's work effort, level of curiosity, self-control of behaviour, independence in dressing or cleanliness.

The study also found important links between measures of readiness to learn and the home environment.

Children with high levels of positive interaction with their parents tended to be more curious, more co-operative in play, have higher scores for receptive vocabulary and communication.

Children of parents who read to them daily did better in receptive vocabulary and number knowledge than those who were not read to daily.

Exercise

Participation in organized sports and physical activities was also linked to several readiness-to-learn measures.

Children who participated at least weekly in these activities showed stronger abilities in receptive vocabulary, communication skill, number knowledge, and copying and using symbols.

Even those who participated regularly in unorganized sports were rated higher in co-operative play than children who did not.

Some activities were linked with higher readiness-to-learn scores whether or not children lived in low-income households or more affluent ones.

These activities included: daily reading, high positive parent-child interaction, participation in organized sports, lessons in physical activities, and lessons in the arts.

"However, the fact that the lower income children were less likely to experience the home environment factor may help to explain the difference in readiness to learn between the income levels," StatsCan said.

The government agency also noted that links between income levels, home environment and readiness to learn do not imply causality but that findings are consistent with other research that suggests a causal role.

Some differences between boys and girls were evident even when they were only three years old.

"Early success in school has been linked to the abilities, behaviours and attitudes that youngsters bring with them as they go to class for the first time," the government agency reported.

"Such information can provide important insights for developing educational policies and practices" to reduce disparities that might be more effective for children.

The clear differences found between girls and boys in communication skill and independence in dressing at the age of five were already evident at three, with girls outperforming boys on both measures.

Similarly, boys were already more curious at three.

On the other hand, differences in attention and in self-control of behaviour favouring girls were not apparent at three, but became evident over the two-year period.

The study found better communication skills and attention among children from more affluent households at the age of five were already apparent when they were three.

In contrast, the difference in co-operative play at five was not evident at three, but appeared over the two-year period.

While affluent children ranked higher their less-affluent counterparts in the measures of work effort and self-control of behaviour at the age of three, these differences had disappeared two years later.

The lack of difference between income levels in curiosity, independence in dressing, and independence in cleanliness existed at both ages.

The study used data from the 2002/2003 data collection phase of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.