Dad's Day

Research over the last decade has shown how important fathers are for their children's development and health (which should be a no-brainer). I find it interesting in a society that argues that all families are equal, the sociological data shows that in intact heterosexual marriages where fathers are involved with their offspring, children do far better than in any other configurations.

In today's Boston Globe, there is an interesting article about the importance of fathers in their children's development in the Living/Arts section with the title, "Dawn of the Dad". Researcher Lynne Vernon-Feagans, a University of North Carolina professor whose speciality is language acquisition of children, found in a study of 90 couples "fathers' conversations with their 2-year-olds are a more important predictor of language learning that are the mothers'." The reason for this is not that mothers' speech is not important, but that fathers' speech "is so different from a mother's, it stretches a child's language development."

There are many more reasons for the importance of fathers' involvement of their children's lives and the article touches on only a couple. Happy Father's Day to you fathers!