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Father-child reading leads to improvements in learning and behavior
Washington Post ^ | January 31,2017 | Reuters

Posted on 01/31/2017 5:07:35 AM PST by Hojczyk

A reading program designed to help men become better fathers is associated with better parenting skills as well as behavior and learning improvements in kids, a small study has found.

Researchers focused on Head Start centers in New York City, where programs are designed to improve school readiness for children younger than 5.

Researchers randomly assigned 126 families to either participate in a reading-based parenting program with eight weekly sessions or join a control group of people on a waiting list for the program.

Fathers in the parenting program watched videos showing dads reading with children and making exaggerated errors. The men discussed better approaches and were encouraged to practice these strategies when reading at home with their own sons and daughters.

Among other things, the program tried to improve such parenting skills as establishing consistent routines and spending time with children doing things chosen by the young people. The program also encouraged dads to use praise and rewards to promote good behavior and to use distraction or reduced attention to discourage negative behavior.

Children with fathers in the program had significantly bigger improvements in behavior and language development during the study period than the other children, researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 01/31/2017 5:07:35 AM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

You start when there babies...my kids were reading at three years

Every kid could read doing this..


2 posted on 01/31/2017 5:10:25 AM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

You start when there babies...my kids were reading at three years

Every kid could read doing this..


3 posted on 01/31/2017 5:12:03 AM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

This tells us NOTHING. It doesn’t tell us WHO conducted the ‘small study.’ I doesn’t tell us why these unnamed ‘researchers’ did the study, nor does it tell us who paid for it. The only named source they could quote was some academic in Boston who WAS NOT INVOLVED in the study. Geez.


4 posted on 01/31/2017 5:12:24 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Hojczyk

Like they needed a study for this.


5 posted on 01/31/2017 5:16:38 AM PST by henkster
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To: Hojczyk

Children with fathers are already miles ahead of those who do not. They don’t have to be in the same house (although that’s great) but they do need to be in their lives.

The best thing my dad ever did for me was to have me read a page, then take the book from me and say “now what did that mean”. It made me love reading and that stayed with me my whole life.


6 posted on 01/31/2017 5:18:50 AM PST by McGavin999
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To: Hojczyk

The training sessions are probably very good for a certain segment of the country’s fathers, and reading of course is very good. But this sort of study is always bogus. You can’t enroll people in any kind of sessions like that with a control that doesn’t have an equivalent level of interaction and call it a scientific comparison.


7 posted on 01/31/2017 5:27:45 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Hojczyk

I read to my kids when they couldn’t read. When they learned I had them read to me. Still do the same with my grandkids.


8 posted on 01/31/2017 5:34:32 AM PST by rfreedom4u (The root word of vigilante is vigilant!)
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To: Hojczyk

The Washington Post needs to check its white privilege.


9 posted on 01/31/2017 5:34:39 AM PST by Oratam
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To: Hojczyk

HAVING a father to read to the kids, dramatically helps child development.

I taught all my kids to read before starting kindergarten, using Hooked on Phonics, graduating to Dr Seuss. My kids were starting to read when the Harry Potter series was first coming out. I would read to them, then have them try to read the next paragraph themselves. When the movies started to come out, there was great interest in reading the books, to find out what would happen next.


10 posted on 01/31/2017 5:39:15 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: Hojczyk

Father child anything improves everything. Reading, walks, talks, turning over stones, looking at the moon, making pancakes, cleaning toilets. It’s all good.


11 posted on 01/31/2017 5:40:28 AM PST by blackdog
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To: rfreedom4u
"I read to my kids when they couldn’t read. When they learned I had them read to me. Still do the same with my grandkids."

Ditto. A beautiful gift and time together.

We read one half hour before bed, every single night. When they learned to read I gave them the choice to read or listen. So when they felt tired I'd read to them.

12 posted on 01/31/2017 5:46:29 AM PST by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: Hojczyk
Some of my fondest memories are of reading to my kids.

I especially liked reading "Dinotopia" to my son when he was a tyke. He was a dinosaur fanatic and ate that story up. Good times.

13 posted on 01/31/2017 6:00:04 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave. - - Ronaldus Magnus Reagan)
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To: Hojczyk

My father read us Grimm’s fairy tales and Kipling’s poems ever night when he was home.
Don’t know how to thank him enough.


14 posted on 01/31/2017 6:00:30 AM PST by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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To: Hojczyk
Interesting article.
For many years I have been spending my lunch hour one day a week at an inner-city school reading to a 2nd grade class.
Takes very little effort, but you might think I was Santa Clause when I walk through that door with a book every week.
Most of these kids don't have a dad in the house, and most don't have anybody ever read to them at home either.
If just one of them develops a love of reading they can change the trajectory of their entire life.

I'm not a bleeding-heart lib - I'm a Christian home-schooler and realize this isn't for everyone, but if that public school teacher cares enough about her kids to seek extra help, them I'll help her dammit.
Besides, I can pray through the hallways as I walk to the classroom....

15 posted on 01/31/2017 6:07:12 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: Hojczyk

My husband read to our kids every night and took them to story time at the library every Saturday. To this day, I meet people in our community who say, “Oh— that was YOUR husband. He was such a good dad.”

But the real reason I am posting is that, years ago, we had a homestay student who was a young adult male from France, doing a business internship, with a muslim/Morrocan/Algerian background. My husband had a profound effect on him. I remember the sorrow in his eyes when he told me that his father had never, ever read to him. His mother couldn’t read at all. I’m sure he will be reading to his children, and marrying a woman who is educated.


16 posted on 01/31/2017 6:15:41 AM PST by married21 ( As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: Hojczyk

I read to my kids constantly when they were little.

I doubt every kid could read at three, that’s exceptional.

At four, just before they hit five, for sure though.


17 posted on 01/31/2017 6:17:23 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Hojczyk

Straight up having a father around does this!


18 posted on 01/31/2017 7:09:26 AM PST by vpintheak (Freedom is not equality; and equality is not freedom!)
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