Speaking Dadly
A short animation has been produced to encourage dads to talk to and communicate with their child from birth.
Commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and delivered by social enterprise Unlimited Potential, the Speaking Dadly project explored how dads can best be supported and encouraged to help their child develop their speech, language and communication skills from an early age.
Working with a father’s group in Salford, the project found that much of Greater Manchester’s early years support is focussed around the needs of the mother, which is impacting on dads participating with early years services and activities currently on offer.
Greater Manchester is now working with dads to shape early years services that recognise the positive role of the father in a child’s development. This includes creating more personalised support, more male-friendly groups, investment in health, wellbeing, and skills, and training for staff working across services for children and families.
As part of this, a short animation has been produced to help address some of the issues and encourage dads to talk to and communicate with their child from birth.
The film identifies a range of ideas to incorporate language and communication into everyday activities which we know is one of the best ways of supporting the communication development of young children.
Voiced by local children, the animation encourages dads to tell stories to their children, chat to them when walking the dog or going to the park, and sing, talk and pull funny faces at their babies.
You can view the animation below.