The Daddy REAds with Me (DREAM) Project is a pilot study that focuses on utilizing a virtual diagnostic reading intervention for Black non-resident fathers and their preschool aged children in Columbus, Ohio. This study aims to increase positive father involvement, as it is a vital contributor to healthy child development. Fathers’ cognitive stimulation—such as book reading with their children—during early childhood is a key predictor of positive outcomes across multiple domains of development, including academic performance, behavioral functioning, language skills, and socio-emotional development.
Dialogic reading (DR) is an evidence-based approach to shared book reading aimed at improving preschoolers’ early school readiness primarily in the form of language skills. The lack of a DR intervention for Black non-resident fathers is a critical service gap in the community, including Columbus, Ohio. Although Black non-resident fathers reported interest in engagement with their children, they often face multiple structural barriers that make it challenging to read with their preschoolers in a consistent manner such as lack of transportation, nonstandard work hours, restricted visitations with their children, financial issues, health problems, and COVID-19. There is an urgent need to eliminate structural barriers so that Black non-resident fathers can stay engaged in reading books with their preschoolers and have a positive impact on their long-term outcomes.
To directly address this community-identified concern, researchers from The Ohio State University College of Social Work (CSW) and staff from Action For Children (AFC)—a community agency providing fatherhood programming to underserved fathers in Columbus—are partnering in a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project. This project will involve co-developing and co-implementing a father-centric virtual DR intervention, Daddy Reads with Me (DREAM), with Black non-resident fathers and their preschoolers.
Dialogic reading (DR) is an evidence-based approach to shared book reading aimed at improving preschoolers’ early school readiness primarily in the form of language skills. The lack of a DR intervention for Black non-resident fathers is a critical service gap in the community, including Columbus, Ohio. Although Black non-resident fathers reported interest in engagement with their children, they often face multiple structural barriers that make it challenging to read with their preschoolers in a consistent manner such as lack of transportation, nonstandard work hours, restricted visitations with their children, financial issues, health problems, and COVID-19. There is an urgent need to eliminate structural barriers so that Black non-resident fathers can stay engaged in reading books with their preschoolers and have a positive impact on their long-term outcomes.
To directly address this community-identified concern, researchers from The Ohio State University College of Social Work (CSW) and staff from Action For Children (AFC)—a community agency providing fatherhood programming to underserved fathers in Columbus—are partnering in a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project. This project will involve co-developing and co-implementing a father-centric virtual DR intervention, Daddy Reads with Me (DREAM), with Black non-resident fathers and their preschoolers.
- Principal Co-Investigators: Joyce Y. Lee & Susan Yoon
- Co-Investigators: Angela Daniels, Jeff Kramer, & Sada King
- Funding: The Ohio State University College of Social Work & Office of Outreach and Engagement
