THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON THE SEMANTIC SKILLS OF ARABIC SPEAKING SUDANESE CHILDREN

Background: There is a large research body that investigate the effect of gender on children language development across different ages and language aspects, but in spite of certain observed differences in language development, there is no proved finding to conclude superiority of one gender above the other. Semantics (the study of meaning), as one of the important language aspects is affected by gender, but the real question is weather this effect is statistically significant or it can just be disregarded as it is too weak to count forAim of the work: to study the effect of gender on the performance of Arabic Speaking Sudanese Children in semantic skills testing.Methods: 180 Sudanese Arabic – speaking children with normal language development participated in the study in the age range between 2-8 years. The language assessment was done by using the Modified Preschool Language Scale-4th edition (PLS-4). The semantic skills were assessed by the Sudanese Arabic Speaking Semantic Skills test.Results: The study showed no statistically significant gender (male or female) effects on the SASST performance. Female showed slightly higher mean of total receptive and total score compared to males which is still statistically not significant.Conclusion: No significant gender differences were documented among children at least for the age group studied (2-8) years. More digging is to be used for more conclusive outcome.