Boys should be treated more like girls to stop them falling behind at school, a study into the gender gap in education has shown.

Academics said parents should do the kinds of activities normally done with girls to boost boys' language skills such as singing nursery rhymes and songs.

Parents should also do more drawing and painting with boys to help bridge the gender gap in academic attainment, researchers at Bristol University said.

They should also read more story books to boys and reward them with stickers or hugs to boost their concentration.

The warnings emerged as a separate study showed boys are almost twice as likely as girls to be falling behind in language skills by the time they start school.