While this article by Randall Stross doesn’t mention exact correlations, I’m a believer in the premise that legos are a valuable training tool (gender aside). With my oldest now nine, I’ve been doing research on how best to start him programming as well.
Related
Some interesting tidbits here from Akamai (with the full report
For my earlier holiday expectations see the following posts: Holiday
Tuesday’s Infographics brings us Apps, Education, Sitting, and more.