Boys are up to three times more likely to be treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as girls; and the prescription of antipsychotic drugs to children — mostly boys — has gone up by 600 percent in the last few years, says psychologist Anthony Rao.

Has boyhood become an illness?

Mr. Rao, author of "The Way of Boys: Raising Healthy Boys in a Challenging and Complex World," thinks we're treating it as such.

"The problem really isn't the boys," Mr. Rao says. "It's our expectations of them."

Young boys need frequent breaks for physical play and release; they often read and write better standing up than sitting down; many find eye contact threatening; and they naturally prefer "doing" and "seeing" over "listening" and "talking," he says.

But little of what they crave in terms of learning styles and physical needs fits into the traditional preschool or school day, where physical education and active recess time are at an all-time low. ...

"Ours has become a culture where we medicate a range of behaviors even in kids as young as 2 and 3 years old," says Dr. Jerome Groopman, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a staff writer for the New Yorker.

Labels: childhood, children, gender differences

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