Fathers can give their children an educational advantage in primary school by reading, drawing and playing with them every day, according to a newly released report.
- A study showed that children do better in elementary school if their father regularly spends time with them in interactive activities like reading, playing or drawing.
- Even ten minutes of shared activity a day could potentially have educational benefits.
- Researchers therefore recommend that fathers spend more time with their child and also get involved in school life.
If you want to give your child a significant educational advantage…play, read and draw with him, gentlemen. Research, carried out by the University of Leeds, has shown that children do better in primary school if their father regularly spends time with them doing interactive activities such as reading, playing, telling stories or singing.
Academic success: having interactive activities with your father boosts results
To better understand paternal influence on children’s development, the researchers used a representative sample of almost 5,000 mother-father households living in England from the Millennium Cohort Study. This study followed children born between 2000 and 2002 for several years. The scientists notably analyzed their results on primary school tests. They discovered that dads who drew, played, told stories, sang and read regularly with their three-year-old toddler helped him do better in school at age five. The same was true for those who had five-year-old children. The latter showed better results at seven years of age in assessments of key stages of development.
Furthermore, paternal involvement had a positive impact on the academic success of young students, regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, school age and household income.
Dr Helen Norman, a researcher at Leeds University Business School, who led the research, explains in a communicated : “mothers still tend to take the primary caregiving role and therefore tend to do the most caring for children, but if fathers also actively engage in childcare, this greatly increases the likelihood that children will get better grades in primary school. This is why it is essential to encourage and support fathers to share childcare with the mother, from the earliest age of the child’s life.
Fathers must also get involved at school
The report, financed by theEconomic and Social Research Council the British research organizationadvises fathers to spend as much time as possible in interactive activities with their children each week. And don’t worry if you have professional hours important or offset: The work, published September 20, 2023, shows that ten minutes a day is enough to provide an educational benefit.
Furthermore, for the good development of the child, paternal investment must not only occur within the family unit, it must extend to the school environment. The researchers therefore recommend that schools and education professionals systematically take the contact details of both parents (as far as possible) and develop strategies to involve dads more in the school life of their children.
Dr. Jeremy Daviesco-author of the report, explains: “our analysis showed that fathers have a direct and significant impact on their children’s learning. We should recognize this and actively find ways to support fathers in their role, rather than only engaging with mothers or taking a non-sexist“.
Andrew Gwynnea British MP and chair of an all-party parliamentary group on fatherhood in the United Kingdom, notes: “This study shows that even small changes in what fathers do and how schools and early childhood settings interact with parents can have a lasting impact on children’s learning. It is absolutely crucial that fathers are not treated as a supporting role.”
