Dads and male carers Why Dad talk matters Involving Fathers Dad stats Initiatives Dads and Every Parent Matters Research Resources Useful websites

Why Dad talk matters

An article in New Scientist magazine has reported on the influence of dads on their children's language development. 92 dual income families were observed at playtime by Lynne Vernon-Feagans and her colleagues from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. They observed how much each parent spoke to their child, words and sentence structures used, and types of questions asked by the parents.

The article reported that children aged two with a father who had more varied vocabulary, went on to have more advanced language skills when they were three. It highlighted that as dads spoke less and asked fewer questions than mothers, what was important was not how much fathers spoke but rather what they said and how they said it that had an impact.

It was also noted in the article that the mother's vocabulary did not appear to have a significant impact on language development. However Vernon-Feagans was quoted as suggesting that this could be due to most mothers in the study using a large number of words with their children, and there could be a threshold at which a large vocabulary stops being an advantage to the child.

(New Scientist, 20.10.06)

Involving Fathers

Under 5 - the magazine from the Pre-School Learning Alliance featured a question and answer session in the section 5 Advice. The first question queried whether different words should be used for publicising activities for fathers. 5 Advice commented that the term 'parents' is often read as to mean 'mothers' and by using 'trigger language' there is more success in targeting greater participation from men. They noted that although it might be an over-simplification, the difference between men being problem solvers and women as rapport builders needs to be taken into account when thinking about how to target both men and women. Another important factor to take into account is to mention fathers and male carers specifically in publicity to make them realise they are included.

The second question asked about what issues need to be considered when including fathers in settings. 5 Advice outlined the need to think about the reason why you want to involve more fathers - such as concerns that too many of the children do not have close contact with a father figure, or providing a setting for fathers who live apart from their children, or whether the service should involve all the parents and carers more. 5 Advice also highlighted that dropping off and collecting times are useful to make the most of any contact with fathers and male carers. Activities where other men are present are more likely to get dads to attend. Normal working hours can be difficult for fathers to attend and also it is important to remember to ask fathers what it is they want!

(Under 5, October 2006)

The Daycare Trust has a number of statistics which underline the importance of fathers and male carers and some of the difficulties they face.

• A number of studies have shown men to be just as capable as women of caring for children.
• Men increasingly want to be a part of their children's lives: 87 per cent of men think it is best for a father to be "very involved in bringing up the child from an early age".
• Ninety five per cent of employers provide bereavement pay but just 65 per cent offer Statutory Paternity Pay.
• A third of fathers spend more than 50 hours a week at work, compared with a quarter of childless men doing equivalent jobs. 8 out of 10 fathers complained that hectic work schedules created difficulties fulfilling family duties and household tasks, but felt forced into longer hours to provide for their children.
• Eleven per cent of lone parents are men (179,000)
• Eighty six per cent of mothers and 85 per cent of fathers with some experience of men working in nurseries that their children attended said they were in favour of men working in nurseries.
• Only half of fathers in prison see their children.
• Twenty five per cent of young offenders are fathers.
• There is a clear association between a strong father-child relationship and the reduction of offending behaviour.
• Childcare is the second most female-dominated occupation, exceeded only by secretaries and personal assistants (99.1 per cent female). 97.5 per cent of the childcare workforce is female.
• The Government has set a target of increasing the proportion of male childcarers to 6 per cent.

(Daycare Trust website)

Resources

Communicating Dads
A resource from TTYB to help practitioners support fathers with their children's early language development. Communicating Dads

ContinYou toolkit - Top Dads: working with young fathers
A toolkit that provides advice on setting up and sustaining projects with young fathers, and is aimed at a range of organisations, including schools and children's centres, youth and voluntary organisations, community and parenting groups, and health and social care agencies. It is based on the experience of a project called Young Fathers which was made up of five schemes and aimed to help fathers strengthen their relationships with their children. There are also other resources on working with fathers available on the website. For more information and to order the toolkit visit www.continyou.org.uk/catalogue_list.php?cid=15

Fatherhood Insitute - Dad Pack
The Dad Pack is a toolkit aimed at fathers and male carers of babies and children under five. It is designed to support their involvement with their children and covers a wide range of subjects - pregnancy, birth, relationships, playing with and praising children and milestones in children's development amongst other things. To order the toolkit visit www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/

Sure Start Children's Centres Practice Guidance
The guidance is produced by the DfES and is designed to promote good practice in children's centres. The guidance is intended for Children's Centre Manager, practitioners, local authorities and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). It includes a section on how services can be tailored to meet needs of particular groups, one of which is fathers. Useful case studies, ideas and good practice are all focussed on. To download the guidance visit www.surestart.gov.uk/publications (see chapter 14 for the section on fathers)

Useful websites and other organisations

• BBC parenting - Dads
  A useful section of the BBC website focusing on information for dads written by men who are fathers.
  www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/dads/
• Children North East Fathers Plus Project
  A project run by Children North East with an aim to ensure that men in caring roles are valued, supported and included in all approaches to work with children and families.
  www.children-ne.org/father_plus_main.htm
• HomeDad
  HomeDad is a UK support group dedicated to helping dads who are staying at home to bring up their children.
  www.homedad.org.uk
• Family Reading Campaign - Targeting dads
  The Family Reading Campaign is a partnership campaign, run by the National Literacy Trust and works to ensure that the importance of encouraging reading in the home is integrated into the activity of key sectors, and has a useful section called Targeting dads. Visit the website
• Fatherhood Institute
  A national think-tank on fatherhood.
  www.fatherhoodinstitute.org
• Storybook Dads
  A charity based at Dartmoor prison where dads can record a story for their children onto CD to help maintain family ties.
  www.storybookdads.co.uk
• The Big Book Share
  The Reading Agency runs this project which enables parents in prison, assisted by librarians to choose books and read on tape for their children.
  www.readingagency.org.uk/adults/big-book-share/
• Working With Men (WWM)
  Working With Men implements and supports work that benefits the development of men and boys. They also seek to raise awareness of issues impacting upon boys and men.
  www.workingwithmen.org/