A SOUTH-WEST author has labelled suggestions to avoid the use of boys and girls as "ridiculous".
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Mepunga West author and mother of three Wendy Coyle said writers aimed to engage their readers by including activities of interest.
"We need to let kids be kids and they need to be able to see each other as a boy and a girl,” Mrs Coyle said.
She published The Naughty Kid to shine a light on why her son Jack, who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), behaved differently from others.
Mrs Coyle said encouraging children to read was very important. "That's how they learn a lot of their vocabulary,” she said.
Mrs Coyle has plans to publish a second book about two Aussie boys who love the outdoors and playing in the mud.
She hopes any plans to address gender equity don't affect authors' abilities to share stories such as these that encourage young people to read. "It's about two typical Aussie farm boys and I wrote it because I thought it might encourage boys to read,” Mrs Coyle said. "I thought it would appeal to them."
The Australian National University's Building Children’s Resilience through Respectful and Gender Equitable Relationships Pilot Project research paper, published in March, aims to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to promote gender equity and prevent gender bias among young children.
The recommendation to minimise use of the terms would help avoid distinction on the basis of gender, according to the study.
"I hope it doesn't take off – it would be ridiculous if that happened,” Mrs Coyle said.
The report also advises against adults encouraging children to play with gender specific toys.