We’re all about Papá this month (although honestly, with two little daddy’s girls, it kind of feels like we’re all about Papá year-round at the Sol casita). So! I just had to share this little tidbit I came across: a Harvard University study that found that kids who enjoy story time with Dad have better-developed language skills than kids who were read to by just Mamá.

Muy interesante, right? Our little bookworm is an equal-opportunity demander of stories, so at our house reading is a task that we share (which is lucky, since it’s one of the most enjoyable child-related tasks in my opinion).

In case you’re as curious as I was to know why exactly kids get so much out of reading with Dad (my hypothesis was facial-hair related, which I am sorry to report has nothing to do with it), here it is: it’s because men tend to inspire more “imaginative discussions” by using abstract and complex language.

What does this look like in real life? Well, it basically means that moms tend to focus more on the details of the book, asking things like “How many balls do you see?” and having kids identify colors. Dads on the other hand are more likely to say something like, “Oh, check out that ladder. Do you remember when I used the ladder to climb on our roof?” This of course is phenomenal for kids’ language development because they have to use their brains a little more to reply.

¿Como la ven? I definitely recognized the counting/labeling/identifying thing as something that I as a mom do alllll the time. So there you have it, one great big reason for Papá to up his story-reading quota!

READ MORE