When can you tell if a child is gay

This method is not terribly practical for several reasons. We all know the stereotypes: an unusually light, delicate, effeminate air in a little boy's step, an interest in dolls, makeup, princesses and dresses, and a strong distaste for rough play with other boys.

Given that a small proportion of the population is homosexual, prospective studies require a large number of children. Learn what to do. Using the prospective method, young children displaying sex-atypical patterns are followed into adolescence and early adulthood so that their sexual orientation can be assessed at maturity.

Some signs of pre-homosexuality show up early in a child’s life as what might be called “cross-gender behavior.” Five markers, in particular, can determine whether a boy or girl is a likely candidate for gender identity disorder: An affinity to cross-dress. Yet, the first five minutes of your response are critical to your child.

Curiously enough, the age-old homophobic fears of many parents reflect some genuine predictive currency. Not surprisingly, therefore, boys naturally select other boys for playmates, and girls would much rather play with other girls. Getty Images. Read on for tips to help parents accept their gay child.

A recurring desire to be the opposite sex — or an insistence that they are the opposite sex. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. The most salient differences are in the domain of play. It may seem stereotypical, but some research suggests that kids show their inclination by the way they dress up.

Michael Bailey and Kenneth J. Zucker, both psychologists, published a seminal paper on childhood markers of homosexuality in Bailey and Zucker examined sex-typed behavior—that long, now scientifically canonical list of innate sex differences in the behaviors of young males versus young females.

Girls enact the role of, say, cooing mothers, ballerinas or fairy princesses, and boys prefer to be soldiers and superheroes. Young children of both sexes enjoy pretend play, but the roles within the fantasy context are gender-segregated by age two. In innumerable studies, scientists have documented that these sex differences are largely impervious to learning.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule; it is only when comparing the aggregate data that sex differences leap into the stratosphere of statistical significance. For example, in a study psychologist Kelley Drummond and her colleagues interviewed 25 adult women who were referred by their parents for assessment at a mental health clinic when they were between three and 12 years old.

Dressing up. In little girls, there is the outwardly boyish stance, perhaps a penchant for tools, a square-jawed readiness for physical tussles with boys, and an aversion to all the perfumed, delicate trappings of femininity. Empirically, the authors explain, there are two ways to investigate this hypothesis, with either a prospective or retrospective study.

Finally, not a lot of parents are likely to volunteer their children. They are also found in every culture examined. This can start from an early age if you can identify the signs of your child's sexual orientation. As parents, all you can do is provide them with love and support.

Finding out your child is gay can lead to a flood of emotions. This approach also takes a long time, around 16 years. These behavioral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbingers of adult homosexuality. By Jesse Bering. At the time, all these girls had several diagnostic indicators of gender identity disorder.

In looking carefully at the childhoods of gay adults, researchers are finding an intriguing set of behavioral indicators that homosexuals seem to have in common. If your son likes sissy stuff or your daughter shuns feminine frocks, he or she is more likely to buck the heterosexual norm.

Right or wrong, this is a sensitive topic, and usually it is only children who present significant sex-atypical behaviors who are brought into clinics and whose cases are made available to researchers. It is only relatively recently, however, that developmental scientists have conducted controlled studies to identify the earliest and most reliable signs of adult homosexuality.

Speech. Toy interests are another key sex difference, with boys gravitating toward toy machine guns and monster trucks and girls orienting toward baby dolls and hyperfeminized figurines. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Why won't my child tell me they are gay? How do I know if my child is gay? So on the basis of some earlier, shakier research, along with a good dose of common sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothesized that homosexuals would show an inverted pattern of sex-typed childhood behaviors—little boys preferring girls as playmates and becoming infatuated with their mother's makeup kit; little girls strangely enamored of field hockey or professional wrestling—that sort of thing.

But predicting sexual preference is still an inexact science.