Hi Jim, There have been some interesting studies done on gender and birth order learning. There is merit to your assumption about gender learning. You might want to look at some of them in relation to your son's ability to learn with what normally would be considered distractions. With the situation you are working in with your online instruction you are doing a good job of bringing the different learning styles into play. The key component that you have with your online instruction is the human factor. By being supportive and available you will be balancing all the aspects of learning for your students. Gary