Juanita Luster, Open Arms Child Development Center, Gainesville, FL

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Understanding Growing Boys Recognizing and
Responding to the Emotional Needs of Young Boys

• Juanita Luster, Open Arms Child
  Development Center, Gainesville, FL
• Kenneth Welcome, Agency for People with
  Disabilities, Gainesville, FL
• Ruth Elswood, EdD, Florida Parental Information
  and Resource Center, University of South
  Florida, Tampa

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From Raising Cain by Michael Thompson and Dan
Kindlon¹

• Americas boys are in trouble.
• Americas boys are destined for lives of
  isolation, shame, and anger.
• Boys emotional needs are going largely
  unrecognized and, consequently, unmet.
• Schools, especially early childhood environments
  are predominantly female cultures.

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From Geoffrey Canada²

• Many boys, especially those in poor inner-city
  environments lack positive male role models in
  their lives.
• Because of this lack many turn to substitute
  families in the form of gangs.
• Death rates from violence among inner-city young
  males, especially African American males are at
  unprecedented levels.

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Boys Emotional Development

• True or False?
• Two year-old boys are more physically aggressive
  than two-year-old girls.
• True or False?
• Three-year-old boys are more physically
  aggressive than three-year-old girls.
• True or False?
• Infant girls are more emotionally vulnerable than
  infant boys.

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Intellectual development

• True or False?
• Boys make up two-thirds of the student population
  in special education classrooms.
• True or False?
• There are more girls than boys in the top 2 of
  the IQ scale.³

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From National Center for Educational Statistics
(http//nces.ed.gov)

• Boys are 30 more likely than girls to drop out
  of school.
• When it comes to grades and homework, girls
  outperform boys in elementary, secondary, high
  school, college, and even graduate school.
• Boys are 4 to 5 times more likely than girls to
  be diagnosed with ADHD.
• Women outnumber men in higher education with 56
  of bachelors degrees and 55 of graduate degrees
  going to women.

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A young boys internal life

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Boy plays roughly boy gets into trouble boy
  gets sent to his room boy saves the world from
  wild beasts boy goes home to where someone
  loves him best of all.

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Schools have changed, not boys

• Schools have become female dominated
  environments with constant oversight and
  intervention.

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Classroom Strategies

• Bring strong, positive male role models into the
  classroom in the form of fathers, grandfathers,
  volunteers, uncles, etc.
• Let boys play physical games. Ask male volunteers
  to lead these activities.
• Create learning activities where boys can use
  their bodies.
• With guidance allow topics that interest boys
  that have in recent years become taboo.

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Strategies, contd

• Allow boy humor.
• Dont be hard on the class clown, embrace his
  humor and allow jokes at appropriate times.
• Cultivate a sense of humor about boys sense of
  humor.
• Use literature when male role models are not
  available.
• Include male parent figures in
• conversations about their children.

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In the classroom some questions to ask yourself

• Are the boys actively encouraged to play in the
  dramatic play or housekeeping center?
• Is there regular physical activity not just on
  the playground, but scheduled throughout the day?
• Are fathers valued and included daily?
• Are kinetic learning styles accommodated, e.g.
  opportunity to stand up to paint,
• large paper at easels for writing practice,
• chalk board and chalk for writing?

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In the classroom, contd

• What safe opportunities are there for physical,
  rough and tumble-type play?
• Are all boys expected to be physical and
  boisterous in their play?
• Is there approval for boys who are naturally
  quiet and shy?
• Are there books available and read aloud that
  acknowledge boys and mens - internal lives?

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Keys to raising emotionally strong boys (Thompson
and Kindlon)

• Boys need permission to have an internal life
  respect it, refer to it, share your own internal
  life.
• Accept and allow that boys need a high level of
  physical activity.
• Use boy language to talk to boys.

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References

• Thompson, M. and Kindlon, D. (1999) Raising Cain
  Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Ballantyne
  Books.
• Canada, G. (1998) Reaching up for Manhood
  Transforming the Lives of Boys in America. Beacon
  Press.
• Deary, I.J., Irwing, P., Der, G., Bates, T.C.
  (2005). Brother-sister differences in the g
  factor in intelligenceAnalysis of full,
  opposite-sex siblings from the NLSY 1979.
  Intelligence 35 451-456.

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Please complete evaluation