• Fathers’ participation in shared book reading has important and unique contributions to children’s development.
• Fathers can successfully and effectively engage in shared reading with their children regardless of their own reading abilities or confidence with reading aloud.
• Fathers who view shared reading as part of their parental responsibility and as an opportunity to bond with their children are more likely to engage in shared book reading activities.

What is shared book reading?

Shared book reading occurs when an adult – typically a family member or caregiver – reads to and with a child. This is a common practice for many families across the world. Familial shared book reading is important for many reasons: It introduces young children to print concepts such as book orientation and reading direction, promotes a range of early language and literacy skills in children, and helps develop positive relationships between caregivers and children.

Shared book reading is uniquely important for children’s development

The types of language exchanges that occur during shared reading are typically more advanced than those occurring in everyday conversations between children and adults. Additionally, the text found in books used during shared book reading introduces children to new vocabulary words beyond what they typically hear in their daily lives.

Parents also tend to engage with their children differently during shared book reading than they do in other types of activities, such as physical play or pretend play. Specific to father-child interactions, research shows that the diversity of fathers’ vocabulary, the number of questions asked, and the length of spoken sentences is greater during shared reading than it is while playing with toys (Salo et al., 2016). This positions shared book reading as a key activity that fathers can engage in that promotes children’s development in many areas.

Fathers interact with children in positive ways during shared book reading

Recent decades have seen increases in fathers’ participation in a variety of activities with their children, including shared book reading. Although some fathers and mothers tend to read books with their children in similar ways, research has shown that Dads interact with their children differently than mothers while reading with their children (Cutler & Palkovitz, 2020). Specifically, fathers ask children more open-ended questions (who, why) – a practice that challenges children’s thinking and expands their language skills (Rowe et al., 2004). Dads also engage in more conversationally challenging interactions with their children during shared book reading than do mothers (Anderson et al., 2004; Tomasello et al., 1990).

Photo: RODNAE Productions. Pexels.

Physical interactions also differ during reading. Recent research has shown that fathers are more likely than mothers to engage in close, interlocking contact while reading with their children, a behavior that helps promote a positive reading experience between parents and children (Cutler, 2020).

What fathers say and do during shared book reading matters for children’s development

Both the quantity and quality of father-child exchanges during shared book reading predict children’s language and literacy skills, influencing what children say and understand. For example, fathers’ linguistic complexity (the types of vocabulary words used, how many overall words are spoken) is positively associated with children’s expressive language (what they say; Rowe et al., 2004; Tomasello et al., 1990). Fathers’ participation in shared book reading also positively affects children’s receptive language skills (what they understand from spoken language; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004).

Language input

Additionally, fathers’ language input while reading books to their children is related to children’s general academic outcomes. Children whose fathers frequently participated in shared book reading activities with them when they were two years old had more advanced social-emotional skills and higher reading and math scores in pre-kindergarten than did children whose fathers read with them less often (Baker, 2013). Furthermore, fathers’ engagement in shared book reading is positively associated with children’s attention skills and ability to regulate emotions, especially for boys (Malin et al., 2014).

Why are fathers less likely than mothers to read to children?

Yet despite the important contributions fathers make to their children’s development through shared book reading, they are less likely than mothers to consistently read with their children or to be the main reader in the household. This gap has narrowed in recent decades, though, as fathers have increased their general levels of participation in their children’s lives.

Both the quantity and quality of father-child exchanges during shared book reading predict children’s language and literacy skills, influencing what children say and understand.

For some U.S. families, a positive outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rise in family participation in reading activities, including between fathers and their children (Carlson et al., 2022; Mayol-García, 2022). Maintaining a higher level of father participation in shared book reading can have both short- and long-term positive effects on children, families, and communities. What factors may influence whether these trends continue?

Factors predicting fathers’ participation in shared book reading

Many factors influence how frequently fathers read with their children, including familial ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. In cultures across the globe, views vary regarding parents’ and familial caregivers’ roles in supporting young children’s language and literacy development. Though parent-child shared book reading is common in many countries, not all cultures favor shared reading as the primary way to involve children in literacy activities.

For example, some Hispanic and Native American families view oral storytelling as more important than or equally important as reading books with their children (Janes & Kermani, 2001; Nelson-Strouts & Gillispie, 2017). Such practices benefit children’s development and can be considered complementary activities fathers can participate in with their children.

Photo: Karolina Grabowska. Pexels.

Father’s views on parenting roles

Father’s views of their parenting roles and responsibilities also play a part. Fathers who view shared book reading as part of their parenting responsibility or whose partners expect them to read with their children are more likely to do so (Ortiz, 2004; Swain et al., 2017). The overall level of engagement fathers have with their children is also associated with the likelihood that they will read with them. It makes sense that fathers who are very involved and available to their children are more likely to read with them.

Furthermore, fathers’ personal experiences with reading affect how often they read with their children. Dads who are confident readers, who enjoy reading themselves, and who have had positive experiences with reading, either at home or in school (or both), are more likely to participate in shared reading activities with their children than dads who have not had these experiences (Duursma et al., 2008; Ortiz, 2004).

The types of books available

The type of books available during shared book reading and fathers’ perceptions of the purpose of shared reading experiences can also influence how often they participate in this activity. Some Dads feel more comfortable reading informational or non-fiction books than fiction books with their children (Robertson & Reese, 2017). The availability of books in the home in fathers’ native languages also affects how likely they are to read with their children. Fathers who have limited literacy or who speak a different first language than their children are less likely to participate in shared book reading (Duursma et al., 2008; Ortiz, 2004).

All fathers can engage in shared book reading, regardless of their reading ability or familiarity with reading aloud

Attitudes matter, too. Sitting close to or holding a child while relaxing and sharing books together is often perceived as a time of emotional closeness between parents and children. Dads who view shared book reading as an opportunity to spend time with and bond with their children are more likely to participate than fathers who view the experience as a chore or as a way to teach their children a lesson (Bus & van IJzendoorn, 1992; Janes & Kermani, 2001).

Conclusion

By engaging in shared reading with their children, fathers can support children’s development while also fostering positive father-child relationships. Many fathers across the world recognize the importance of shared book reading. However, the rates at which fathers read with their children continues to lag behind that of mothers.

Highlighting the unique contributions Dads make to children’s development through reading is an important consideration for programs and policies designed to support families and communities. Supporting fathers who are hesitant to read with their children or feel less confident about reading is also important.

All fathers can engage in shared book reading, regardless of their reading ability or familiarity with reading aloud. Here are suggestions for how to ensure that all fathers feel supported in shared book reading.

Considerations for fatherhood programs and family literacy initiatives

• Normalize and promote father-child shared book reading as an important activity for fathers.
• Highlight the unique contributions fathers make to their children’s development by engaging in shared reading.
• Focus on the overall importance of sharing books and not on being a “perfect” reader. (For example, encourage the idea that stories can be shared without reading every single word on the page.)
• Ensure that messaging and marketing materials promoting family literacy activities feature fathers.
• Select books to share that are of interest to a wide range of fathers and that account for the varying literacy abilities of adult readers, such as books that feature fathers interacting with their children in positive ways, bilingual books, and wordless picture books.
• Offer books that portray fathers from varying racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, as well as fathers from varying family constellations (single fathers, same-sex fathers, kin fathers, stepfathers).

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This finding comes from our quantitative review of 39 studies involving 1,812 children, most of whom were 4- to 5-year-olds. Only nine studies included children mainly from low SES families, and the rest focused on children from middle or high social economic status families or mixed groups. The studies were from the United States, Canada, Israel, and the Netherlands.

Digital books can offer oral narration and enhancements to replace an adult pointing, commenting, and explaining to a child. These enhancements provide background information and explain events. For example, in Elmo Goes to the Doctor, the reader can click each character in the waiting room and see why each one is at the doctor’s office. Likewise, hotspots in other digital books may elicit comments from characters that expand on the text and provide additional information to support comprehension.

However, not all digital books enhance story comprehension. A digital book that lacks enhancements – which is practically the same as the paper version – has less effect than a paper book. The most plausible reason is that the device on which the child is reading the digital book attracts the child’s attention at the expense of the story.

Our review also found that digital books can have enhancements that interfere with story comprehension. For example, many commercially published digital picture books include a dictionary. The reader can tap on individual pictures to make the name of the object or action pop up and hear the word spoken aloud. This enhancement has either no effect or a negative effect on children’s story comprehension. This is not surprising, given that focusing attention on word meanings distracts children’s attention from the storyline. Young children do not have the cognitive resources to focus on word meanings and the storyline at the same time.

Photo: Rafiq Sarlie. Creative Commons.

Digital books: An effective alternative in families where book sharing is infrequent

Books are a crucial environmental factor for children’s language skills. They expose young children to more and richer language than do conversations between caregivers and children. But many parents do not establish daily book reading routines because of reading problems, lack of time or interest in literary texts, or prioritizing other activities, such as viewing films, over reading books.

Over the years, there have been family programs to promote book reading, often with disappointing effects. Even after intensive coaching of parents, such programs have produced only moderate gains in language and literacy. This suggests that book reading is unsustainable as a daily routine for many families. Therefore, access to high-quality digital books, which can be read by children independently, can provide a safety net, compensating for missing book reading with parents and other caregivers at home, at least as far as cognitive skills are concerned.

Of course, parents need to encourage their children’s use of digital books. However, optimal use of these books requires direct input from parents since sharing digital books nurtures parent-child relationships and socioemotional development.

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During the current pandemic, many new parents have found themselves with little support, but there are simple things parents can do at home to nurture essential interactions with their baby.

Around this time last year, an inexorable force swept into people’s lives. It upended everything — relationships, friendships, routines, work life, independence, and sense of control. In this respect, the COVID-19 pandemic has similarities to another dramatic event — becoming a parent. And just like the pandemic, nothing quite prepares you for it.

For all those who became parents in the last year, these two realties have collided. New parents have been left without many of the usual support networks that help support them through the early days. Those networks include their own parents, parent-baby groups, informal social networks, and in-person postnatal and breastfeeding support groups. Added to all this is the constant threat from a life-threatening virus.

“We hope it is a comfort to know that there is something simple and easy to do together, safely and in the comfort of home, that lays positive foundations for the developing brain.”

It is too soon to say what effect these extraordinary circumstances will have on babies born during the pandemic, but the effect on parents is already being felt. Numerous studies show that parents have found lockdowns extremely hard emotionally, and that the strain they are under has affected their ability to parent, which has consequences for children. The lockdowns have been linked to an increase in parental anxiety, depression, and hostility. And the pandemic has put women at increased risk of anxiety and depression in the perinatal period. At the same time, increased parental support has been shown to help decrease stress associated with the pandemic. The brunt of this burden has fallen on certain groups, including single parents and low-income families.

Because of this, it is vital that new parents receive additional support at this difficult time, especially in terms of their mental health.

There are some very simple, intuitive ways parents can work on laying the foundations for their children’s development from the very early days. One of the simplest of these is to pick up a book and read together.

Plenty of evidence shows how important it is to read with children, not least for their cognitive development and vocabulary. In one study, both the quality of the books and the amount of reading time starting at six months were important predictors of literacy and vocabulary four years later. New parents might be surprised to learn that a shared activity like reading promotes a kind of back-and-forth interaction between child and caregiver that can trigger a chain reaction of long-lasting beneficial effects, and that these interactions might also help reduce the stress parents are feeling.

Adults who interact sensitively with a child — for instance, reading or singing, looking at the same things, and copying sounds and faces — help children feel safe and secure. In turn, these feelings can help children cope better in challenging situations later on — something we know is important during the pandemic. These interactions also encourage children to explore more, which helps them develop problem-solving skills. All this builds to the kind of learning and development that prepares children for big steps in life, like starting school.

This cascade of development is supported by the science of early learning, which shows that parents and caregivers lay the foundation for secure caregiver-child attachment relationships, which help children develop the ability to focus and pay attention, remember instructions, and demonstrate self-control (also called executive function). Positive caregiver-child interactions also help children develop social-emotional skills, such as cooperating and playing well with others, and managing feelings appropriately. Together, secure relationships and strong social-emotional and executive function skills in children are related to resilience and school readiness.

“New parents might be surprised to learn that a shared activity like reading or singing together promotes a kind of back-and-forth interaction between child and caregiver that can trigger a chain reaction of long-lasting beneficial effects.”

The children are not the only ones who benefit. Positive and engaging interactions between children and the adults in their lives are also good for the adults, helping them become more confident caregivers. Reading to children may also help with parental stress and even depression.

It can feel strange to read books to very young babies. Even without a pandemic, the early days of parenthood can be overwhelming and it can be hard for parents to know what they should be doing, especially given the deluge of parenting advice. Parents also underestimate just how early the care they provide has long-term impacts on their children’s development. For instance, in one survey, parents said they believed what they did started to make a difference at six months, but we know that the impact starts from birth. At a time when uncertainty abounds, especially for new parents, we hope it is a comfort to know that there is something simple and easy to do together, safely and in the comfort of home. And that the simple back and forth that reading and rhyming creates can extend beyond the pages of the book and lay positive foundations for the developing brain that last for many years.

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Children are curious. They want to know.  And digital babysitting leaves that thirst for knowledge unsatiated.

Mom, why do penguins have wings?
Because they were born with them.
But, why do they have them, if they can’t fly?
Because their wings help them swim.
Why?
Because they’re like flippers in the water.
Why are they like flippers?
They just are.

This type of conversation is nothing new to parents of young children. The constant “why’s” of childhood can be exasperating, as children repeatedly push for more and more information. But despite the challenging nature of these moments, these “why” questions are actually quite important for children’s learning: They show adults what children want to learn (Callanan & Oakes, 1992), reveal what they are naturally curious about, and help them gain information about the world around them. In the example above, the child learned that penguins’ wings are not meant to help them fly at all, but to help them swim. In this case, the child’s causal questions, aimed at gaining explanations, were persistent: She wanted specific information and was unsatisfied with her mother’s initially circular answer.

Research suggests that children demonstrate these persistent questioning behaviors often, sometimes even coming up with their own answers and explanations when parents don’t give a satisfying answer (Kurkul & Corriveau, 2018). Even infants do this. Although babies can’t ask verbal questions, they use pointing gestures to request information from adults (Kovacs et al., 2014). Infants are also persistent — they continue pointing when an adult provides an unsatisfying answer to their nonverbal query (Lucca & Wilbourn, 2019).

Although asking questions is commonplace in childhood, the “new normal” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic may affect children’s inquiries. As many news outlets and school announcements remind us, we are currently living in “unprecedented times” in the wake of the virus. How does a worldwide pandemic affect children’s questions?

The research is clear: Children ask questions about the world and persist in asking their questions when they aren’t satisfied with the answers. Why? Because children are curious and know that adults can provide them with rich information. Children’s questions become even more incredible when we open our eyes to the complexities that allow questions to flow so seamlessly from their mouths: They must identify where they need information, come up with a question to address the gap in their knowledge, and direct their query to an appropriate, knowledgeable person.

Although asking questions is commonplace in childhood, the “new normal” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic may affect children’s inquiries. As many news outlets and school announcements remind us, we are currently living in “unprecedented times” in the wake of the virus. How does a worldwide pandemic affect children’s questions?

During stay-at-home orders, children may have fewer experiences with other children and adults. Research suggests that as preschoolers develop, they become more skilled at directing their questions to appropriate people (Choi et al., 2018). For example, they learn over time that some questions will be answered better by adults than by children. Without practice asking questions and evaluating responses from different children and adults, children may not be as well prepared to ask and answer questions.

Additionally, children are missing out on many of the stimulating experiences they had before the pandemic, experiences that prompt curiosity and questions. For example, one study found that children asked fewer questions when viewing replicas or drawings of animals than when viewing live animals in a zoo (Chouinard et al., 2007). Questions about penguins’ wings, for example, might just not get asked. Television or videos don’t promote that much inquiry, either: Young children do not learn as much from television as they do from live interactions (Anderson & Pempek, 2005). Nor do electronic toys or tablets seem to spur children’s questions as often as real interactions do (Neale et al., 2020).

How can we expose children to objects and events to stimulate their questions during quarantines? Here are several ideas you can try:

1. Demonstrate how to ask questions. Even during a pandemic, children mimic what they see. Parents who ask questions have children who ask more questions. Instead of asking simple yes/no questions, try asking open-ended questions that use why and These are questions that get children thinking. Kids learn words more successfully when the words are presented as parts of questions rather than as statements.
2. Curiosity spurs questions. Look at what your child is looking at. If you ask them a question, they might then ask you one. On a walk or in a park, ask questions about what you see. There is so much to query, for example, why do leaves fall off trees? Even watching a snow plow salt the roads can spark children’s curiosity. Why does salt make the snow melt? These experiences can elicit genuine, causal questions from children. Sometimes, children just need to be given the opportunity to ask. And we need to have the impetus to use the web to find the answers.
3. Parents’ attention enables questions. Preliminary research in our lab suggests that children are more likely to ask questions when their parents are undistracted than when the adults are using their cell phones. It’s difficult to separate work and home during the pandemic, but try to reserve some time each day that is off limits for phones. Putting your phone away can signal to children that you are available, listening, and ready to respond to their questions.

Children are curious. They want to know.  And digital babysitting leaves that thirst for knowledge unsatiated. Although the pandemic certainly raises obstacles to some of the experiences that typically stimulate children’s questions, parents have the power to increase children’s inquiry, even at home.

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The greatest influence occurs at home, but there remains a lot to understand about harnessing parents’ – and particularly fathers’ – potential to help.

Demonstrate to your children the value of education – that’s one of the most important ways a parent can encourage their learning. This is true the world over, although parents have various ways to highlight this value. If parents succeed in convincing their children of the importance of education and can mobilize the resources to provide support, children typically stay in school and do well.

Many of the important contributions from parents do not require money or qualifications. Support can begin with a simple question: “What are you learning about at school?” Parents can bring an extra perspective to what children are studying: “I don’t know if you have heard about this…?” can open a discussion. For example, parents might mention climate change and ask how it fits in with, say, science at school. They can extend what the child is doing in class and bring it home: “What do you think we can do? Can we recycle?” These conversations express that parents value education and support their children.

“Parental involvement in children’s education is important in every country. However, the way that involvement takes place varies greatly.”

Parents also set an example. They can let children see them reading for themselves, so parents are not always on their phones and do not leave a television on constantly in the background. Reading with children, especially in the early years, is highly beneficial. But if parents have low literacy skills, just talking with children and telling them stories, even if not from a book, help build language skills.

Parental involvement varies globally

Parental involvement in children’s education is important in every country. However, the way that involvement takes place varies greatly. In some low-income countries, where even low school fees for uniforms, books, or transport can break the family budget, parents show their commitment to their children’s learning by making considerable sacrifices to meet the costs. Sometimes, they manage it only for some members of the family: Perhaps the younger siblings are sent to school while the older ones work to pay the expenses. In Kenya, the best schools tend to be boarding, with children living away from home for many months. If they can, parents show how they value education by paying the fees even though that means losing out on face-to-face childrearing.

In the United States, one of the most important parental contributions to children’s learning is choosing where the family lives. There are thousands of individual school systems, with different books, curricula, and pedagogical strategies; Americans with financial resources often decide where to make their homes based on the school system they want for their children. The location of a school matters much less in China, where schools are more standardized, and where there is a national curriculum and national pedagogical strategies and textbooks. Parents in China and other Asian countries such as the Philippines and Thailand tend to focus more on home support, helping with homework and making sure that children have a designated time and place to study.

Photo: Pass the Torch. Creative Commons.

Mobilizing parents’ educational input

How can formal education use parents effectively – harness their social capital – for learning? Cultural norms vary. In some places, such as the United States, parents are  expected to volunteer in their children’s classrooms, work at book fairs or other events, or help with fundraising. Jordan has mandatory parents’ councils, which involve parents directly with administrators and teachers. Many countries have variations of this concept. Sometimes the goal is for teachers to communicate what is happening in the classroom and guide parents on how they can support their children’s learning. These initiatives generally work better if they are universally available and non-stigmatizing, rather than focusing solely on parents of children who are struggling. However, some countries (e.g., China) have eschewed these models and generally, parents are not seen in classrooms or at schools there.

Few models harness the support fathers can bring to their children’s education – in fact, much of the research and practice related to parental involvement focuses on mothers. But some countries have recognized the potential of involving fathers. In Jordan, when organizers of a parenting program saw that success mainly involved mothers, imams were recruited to spread messages about parenting to dads at Friday prayers.

The greatest influence is at home 

Home is typically where parents make the most difference in their children’s education. Parents often ask how much help they should give with homework. It is good to lend a hand if children are struggling at school, with the parent acting like a tutor to help children understand or practice reading with text support. But some parents go too far and take over, making children feel that they cannot do it on their own. Children need to feel efficacious.

School learning systems can clash with family and cultural systems. This is true where schools adopt, for example, English or French as the language of instruction, when children are fluent in different mother tongues and much less able to communicate in these other languages. In the Philippines, for example, new laws require instruction during primary school in mother tongue languages because many parents were uncomfortable with the main languages being English or Filipino, which prevented them from being involved in their children’s education. In many countries, language policy has disconnected learning at school from interactions at home and hindered parents’ ability to be involved in their children’s education.

“A major issue in education – which parents can influence considerably – is maintaining children’s mental health and well-being.”

Parents can support mental health

A major issue in education – which parents can influence considerably – is maintaining children’s mental health and well-being. Placing a high emphasis on academic achievement can lead to anxiety and symptoms of depression in children. This often occurs where high-stakes examinations provide a narrow gateway to further opportunities, perhaps because a country has limited resources for funding education or elite institutions cherry-pick students.

High-stakes testing, particularly in Asian countries, fosters concerns that academic success is achieved at the expense of children’s mental health. Sweden offers a contrasting example, thanks partly to its wealth, with a good intersection between family values and the school system: Both support students having varied paths of study that reflect their individual interests. And Sweden does not have the barriers to higher education found in some countries, which generate so much examination anxiety.

It is much easier to highlight parental practices – such as physical punishment – that are universally bad for children than it is to identify evidence on which practices are universally good. But the level of variation suggests that parents and education systems should look elsewhere and ask: “Should we try that here?”

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Both increasing parent-child cognitive stimulation and reducing maternal stress have cascading positive impacts on each other as the child grows up, making the case for supporting interventions that target both.

Two key perspectives have emerged to explain how poverty affects family functioning and early childhood development. One focuses on stress and how it reduces the quality of parent-child relationships and thus the child’s social and emotional development. The other focuses on parents’ limited resources to provide cognitive stimulation, resulting in less advanced cognitive development.

One activity combines both these perspectives: when parents read and play with their child. Research into the Video Interaction Project (VIP), an intervention which supports parent-child shared book reading and playing during the first three years of life, has found a pathway towards improved development that involves both cognitive and social/emotional components:

VIP → more cognitive stimulation in the home at six months → less stress on the part of a mother at 36 months → better behavior on the part of the child at 36 months

In this pathway, cognitive stimulation by the mother and reduced maternal stress appear to be reinforcing each other through time.

VIP supports cognitive development and the parent-child relationship through parents reading aloud to their children. At 14 half-hour sessions throughout the first three years of the child’s life, a professional early years worker meets one-on-one with the parent. The session starts with a video-recording of the parent and child playing with a toy or a book. This video is used to prompt reflection with the parent, focusing on identifying and reinforcing strengths. The parent is given a personalized pamphlet to suggest further techniques and to set individualized goals.

The research worked with mothers only. (It is not explained why.) The 362 mothers were mostly Hispanic/Latina women from low-income backgrounds, recruited from a parenting and early childhood development program operating out of an urban hospital in New York, USA. They were divided equally between an intervention group and a control group.

The research assessed three aspects of parenting at both six months and 36 months by asking the mother about:

• Cognitive stimulation, for example, availability of learning material in the home, amount and quality of reading with the child, parental involvement in early childhood development and how the parent responds verbally to the child.
• Stress experienced by the mother about her relationship with the child.
• Depressive symptoms on the part of the mother.

Then the child’s behavior was measured at 36 months, again by asking the mother. (The method of gathering data just from the mothers self-reporting was recognized as a limitation of the research method.)

The cognitive stimulation pathway accounted for 18% of the difference between the behavior at 36 months of children who had experienced the intervention and children in the control group who did not.

VIP → more cognitive stimulation in the home at 6 months → more cognitive stimulation in the home at 36 months → better behavior on the part of the child at 36 months

The parental stress/depressive pathways together accounted for 25% of the difference.

VIP → less stress on the part of a mother at 6 months → less stress at 36 months → better behavior on the part of the child at 36 months

VIP → less depressive symptoms on the part of a mother at 6 months → less depressive symptoms at 36 months → better behavior on the part of the child at 36 months

The mixed pathway, particularly the one outlined above involving cognitive stimulation and the mother’s stress, accounted for 35% of the difference.

The overall impact of the intervention was described as “modest”, similar in magnitude to more intense and more expensive interventions, with clinically important effects at both the individual and population level. VIP is 10 times cheaper than home visiting programs, for example.

The findings show that improved early cognitive development and social/emotional development have cascading positive impacts on each other as a child grows up, making the case for interventions that target different kinds of development simultaneously. There is nothing in the research to suggest that the same wouldn’t apply for all parents, not just mothers.

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Support for language development in early childhood needs to start right at the beginning and in the home.

A new study finds that a home environment that supports language development in early childhood—across the first four years of life—predicts children’s readiness to learn in pre-school, which in turn predicts the children’s academic skills in fifth grade (age 10-11). The study focused on low-income families.

The findings challenge the idea that pre-school alone can help children “catch-up” after a poor start at home. Rather, support for language development and learning begins in infancy right at home. Other research finds that early support can mitigate the poorer outcomes commonly associated with lower socio-economic status.

The researchers also found that, to a lesser extent, the home learning environment from infancy through pre-school predicts the home learning environment at 10-11, which then supports children’s academic success at 5^th grade.

So, home environment support for language development early on paves the way to academic achievement in later years through two key pathways: by supporting school readiness in preschool, and, to a lesser extent, through the home learning environment when children are 10-11 years of age.

The study, part of a wider evaluation of the early years Head Start program in USA, involved 2,024 low-income and ethnically diverse families – White, Black, Hispanic English speaking and Hispanic Spanish speaking. The results were true for children from all ethnic groups.

Researchers assessed the early language development by measuring factors known from earlier research to influence a child’s cognitive development:

• Literacy activities in the home. Mothers were asked about book-reading, storytelling and teaching of letters, words and numbers. Children’s engagement in shared book-reading and access to print materials are associated with higher language development in early childhood: skills in vocabulary, narrative construction, phonemic awareness, print concept knowledge, and positive attitudes towards literacy.
• Quality of mother-child interaction. This was observed during a home visit and then from a video-recorded mother-child play session. Exposure to rich, varied and complex language in the early years improves language development, as does parental responsiveness and sensitivity.
• Learning materials present in the home. Researchers observed the homes they visited. They assessed the presence of books, toys, games for free expression (such as crayons and puppets), toys that facilitate motor skills (such as blocks) and number/counting games. The presence of books in a household has been linked to a child’s expanded vocabulary. Toys that elicit symbolic play, such as telephones and tea sets, assist language development in early childhood.

The learning environment when the child was 10-11 was similarly measured.

The researchers discuss several factors that might account for long-term associations from language development in early childhood to academic performance years later. The theory of “developmental cascades” proposes that early language skills lay a foundation for quicker learning at the next stage of development, and this pattern repeats itself over time. Then there is the possibility – as confirmed in this research – that home learning environments are relatively stable, so a child with a positive home learning environment is likely to be advantaged in later years, with positive habits solidifying. Thirdly, there may be positive feedback loops from children to parenting: a child with stronger language skills powerfully shapes the response of caregivers. Adults communicate more with children who communicate well, which further bolsters children’s skills.

All this evidence points to the need to start support for language development in infancy and in the home to arm children with the abilities they need to do well in school.

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Language development in infancy is influenced differently by well-educated mothers and fathers, even though they read to their young toddlers (1 to 2 years old) in broadly similar ways.

Well-educated mothers and fathers influence language development in their young toddlers (1 to 2 years old) differently, even though they read to the children in broadly similar ways.

Austrian researchers who study language development in infancy worked with 100 mother-father-child families, separately observing how the mother and father read the same book to their toddlers. They identified and measured five modes of parental behaviour during a 5½ minute parent-child interactive session with a farm animal picture book:

• Describing-Commenting
  • For example, the parent says, “There are bugs all over the grass” or “The rabbit hops down the path.”
• Pointing-Labelling
  • For example, the parent says, “Look, these are pigs!” or “A butterfly!”
• Inquiring-Clarifying
  • For example, the parent says, “Is this a cat?” or “What does the pig say?”
• Expanding-Elaborating
  • For example, the parent says, “Yes, a pear. You just ate a pear 20 minutes ago” or “I think this bowl looks like grandma’s bowl.”
• Repeating-Imitating
  • The parent repeats what the child says.

The first difference the researchers found involved a link that was found for fathers but not for mothers between more “repeating/imitating” and the child’s subsequent ability to express words. Why this difference in language development occurs needs further exploration. But the researchers postulate that fathers may tend to interact more playfully with their children, aiming to evoke a reply by repeating and imitating, whilst mothers tend to use repeating and imitating indirectly to correct the child’s utterances, in ways that do not require a verbal response from the child.

Conversely, when mothers do more “inquiring/clarifying”, children show enhanced language development. But when fathers do the same thing, their children are likely to show less ability to comprehend. The researchers postulate that mothers may be more likely to follow their children’s lead rather than challenge their limits, resulting in more improvement in the children’s comprehension.

When mothers do more “pointing/labelling”, children’s language development proceeds more strongly, but there is no such link for fathers. The researchers postulate that fathers may tend to do this activity more quickly—perhaps too quickly for the children properly to comprehend what is being pointed out or labelled.

The researchers also looked at factors that influenced how the mothers and fathers communicated with their toddlers during the reading activity. They measured the parent-child attachment security for each parent-child pair as well as the educational status of each parent. Again, they found significant differences between mothers and fathers.

The father’s education influences children’s language development in a way that mother’s education does not, suggesting a social influence on fathers’ parenting that is different from mothers’. If a father has college/university education:

• His toddler is more likely to show more advanced language comprehension.
• His child is more likely to display stronger attachment security with him.
• His own mode of communicating is likely to be more proactive – more pointing/labelling and more describing/commenting. (It should be noted that for both parents, higher education is linked to a greater quantity of reading with the child.)

Mothers’ education does not influence their interaction with their children in these ways. For mothers, the interaction seems to be driven more by the attachment relationship with their children. The quality of mother-toddler attachment is associated with more expanding/elaborating, pointing/labelling and inquiring/clarifying on the mothers’ part. This does not hold for fathers. Mothers and fathers are similar, however, in that stronger attachment is linked to a greater extent of reading with a child and stronger development of language comprehension.

This is one of the first studies that has attempted to disentangle the influences of mothers and fathers on language development in infancy and to measure fathers’ influence separately from mothers’.

Asked by the Child & Family Blog about the practical implications of their study for infant language development, the researchers suggested that parents should see one-to-one reading with a young child more as a relationship experience than a teaching one. It’s important to respond to children’s contributions during reading by picking up their ideas and either reacting in a playful way to evoke a verbal response or more gently to build comprehension.

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Diverse beliefs, practices and purposes of children’s play in different cultures call for skepticism that Euro-American approaches to child development are best everywhere.

Our knowledge about play should sound a loud warning to policy makers, educators and parents: don’t presume that there are single pathways to optimal child development or that one culture’s practice – particularly the West’s – is best. There are many effective pathways and practices to achieve child development, some better suited to particular cultures than others.

Three factors underscore this call for cultural humility, policy diversity and academic scepticism. First, play has greatly varied significance for child development across cultures. In some, it’s considered a pivotal building block. In others, it’s viewed merely as an incidental activity.

“Be careful what you preach. Avoid universal theories for child development. Recognise the cultural limitations of existing evidence.”

Second, the childhood practice of play differs greatly. In some places, it’s a highly practical imitation of adult work. Elsewhere, it can be a distant abstraction of everyday life, often taking place in fictional worlds.

Third, given play’s varied forms, many contexts and diverse attendant belief systems, we are far from sure about causal links between certain types of play and child development. We’re even further from proving the primacy of any particular approach. So be careful what you preach. Avoid one-size-fits-all prescriptions and universal theories for child development, parenting and education. Be sure to recognise the cultural limitations of existing evidence.

Narrow cultural focus of play research

Contemporary thinking about play is largely based on research in European and European-American middle-class families. This research emphasises play’s role during the early years in developing cognitive, social and emotional skills, and in preparing children for school and for operating in technology-based societies. Given childhood play’s perceived role in laying the foundations for lifelong economic success, it’s highly valued in these societies.

Elsewhere, however, play has different forms, functions, prevalence and significance. Who plays with children also varies considerably – be it mothers, fathers, siblings or others – and so does the importance that play may have in building relationships, particularly in securing child-parent attachment.

Non-Western cultures have different attitudes

In our global review of evidence, we found that mothers in a Mayan community in Guatemala see play as perfunctory to childhood development. They are amused at the suggestion of playing with young children. Such attitudes, which are also found in other cultures, contrast sharply with the highly involved practices of ‘helicopter parents’ and ‘tiger moms’.

Mothers in Papua New Guinea say that children learn through work, not play. In many agrarian or foraging societies, children learn subsistence skills and domestic tasks though early participation in these activities via a combination of work and play. For example, a study of Baka foragers in the Republic of Cameroon recorded 85 different types of play by young children, including hunting (making a trap), gathering (insect collecting) fishing (with baskets), playing house (play cooking with inedible materials) and creating clothes (making eyeglasses out of vines).

These traditional approaches to learning-by-doing or imitating adults are important. They offer significant contributions to contemporary thinking about how children learn best. They speak, for example, to the debate that pits didactic, instructional children’s education against approaches that focus on active self-education.

Photo: provided by the author.

Roughhousing with dad is important for child development

Cultural variations in play practices – and their impact – are prominent around children’s interactions with their fathers. Research into European and European-American families ascribes an important role to the kind of roughhouse play that is prevalent between Western fathers and their young children. This type of play is considered to be a pathway both to child-father attachment and to helping children regulate their emotions and social relationships.

Fathers behave differently in some cultures

However, in many societies, fathers don’t do roughhouse play. Yet their children have close, well-attached relationships with them and also learn to control their feelings and manage social relationships. A good example is the Aka hunter-gatherer community in the Central African Republic. In this collectivist, egalitarian culture, fathers don’t roughhouse with their young children. Nevertheless, Aka fathers are reckoned to have the closest child-father relationships in the world – they are very gentle caregivers, holding their babies 22 per cent of the time, according to Barry Hewlett’s research. No need to teach Aka dads to roughhouse – they clearly have different pathways to successful child development.

Cross-cultural research also leads us to question the universality of another often-held view about child development – that parent-child play helps progress with cognitive development. We conducted a study, involving 50,000 children in 18 African countries, where we looked for links between parental engagement in play and children’s literacy skills. We also looked for connections between parents reading to their preschool children and later literacy skills. We found that parental reading did indeed predict literacy skills. But parental play was rarely linked to literacy skills in these contexts. Oral storytelling by parents was more predictive of literacy skills.

Too much faith in universal theories of child development

 When we presented this evidence to an audience of British academics, they didn’t believe us, reflecting a deep faith in the universality of child development pathways discovered in Western countries. Western academics have particular confidence in play as a route to cognitive development, a link not always found in other parts of the world. Yet, even in Western societies, questions have arisen about whether the links we have been observing between play and cognitive development and social skills represent correlational or causal relationships.

“Different cultural practices of child rearing should be considered in developing advice to parents as well as in making policy.”

I believe in play. Children obviously benefit from it. But we still don’t know the mechanism through which they do so. Is play itself the vital component, or is the display of parental sensitivity the active ingredient? Play does encourage children to acquire social skills. It helps them adjust their thinking and their social relationships. They probably also learn empathy through play. But there are clearly many more pathways for these forms of child development. So we should be skeptical about imposing what works in the West on others.

Cultural beliefs about play may influence impact

 Why is it that play seems to have big impacts in some places and, apparently, not in others? We can’t be sure. It may be that where parents believe play is frivolous, mom and dad don’t play much or in a really engaged way. So their children do not gain many benefits. Beliefs about play may be crucial in determining the impacts it has on childhood outcomes.

Diversity in other fields of child development

Play isn’t the only area where we see widespread variations in child development practice. Breastfeeding is generally accepted as a good thing. It is considered important everywhere. But weaning varies hugely. In the United States, six months of exclusive breastfeeding is recommended. But some children are breastfed until three years old and weaned gradually. In some cultures, as another baby is born, the previous child is weaned abruptly. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), the newborn is passed around to be suckled by a number of women. We don’t know which practice, if any, is best for child development.

The takeaway message to policy makers is that they should consider diverse cultural practices of child rearing when developing advice to parents as well as in making policy. This is particularly important in countries with culturally diverse populations.

Parents in different cultures have different goals. For example, in technological societies, we socialize children to think in complex ways about technology. That might not be best in countries that lack the same technological resources.

We should also be willing to learn from other cultures. Capitalism, which drives so many Western attitudes to child development, is only a few hundred years old. It’s worth looking at other societies, less influenced by these values. We are beginning to recognize that they could teach us a lot about how to rear children.

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