Schoolgirls are missing out on mental health help because they’re 'too good' at hiding their struggles behind perfect grades.
Teachers often overlook language disorders in girls who perform well academically, leading to a massive gender gap in support services. Even when their needs are identical to boys, girls are 30–40% less likely to get the help they need.
Sex differences in special education language services in U.S. schools
PsyArXiv · 5q6ax_v1
Under U.S. law, students with developmental language disorder (DLD) may qualify for special education services under the categories “speech-language impairment” or “specific learning disorder”. Girls receive these services ~50% less often than boys; however, community samples reveal near parity in DLD prevalence by sex. Using longitudinal data from >1.6 million students, we tested three hypotheses for this service gap. In part, the gap is justified: we found that fewer girls than boys need these