Speakers: Paulo Yañez, PsyD, Doctoral Program Chair
What do families need to know about nurturing children’s emotional well-being?
Paulo Yañez, PsyD: Hello, my name is Paulo Yañez and in observance of October Child Health Day, I wanna take a moment to talk about nurturing a child's emotional well-being. The expression of "it takes a village" comes to mind right away. This expression highlights the importance of significant caregivers in a child's life. The more caregivers, the better the outcomes. However, I cannot help but to be pulled in the direction of fatherhood because I'm a father myself and I have seen this firsthand how important my role as a father has been in the life of my daughter. Through the years in my work with fathers, I have seen, I have worked with many fathers that don't realize this. They have a really difficult time understanding how important they are in the life of their child, especially during infancy and early childhood. There are numerous studies that have shown us the importance of this relationship. ... Father involvement leads to positive outcomes such as school readiness, um higher sociability when a father is involved. um a toddler is more... feels more secure to explore the environment. I invite you all to think about this on the importance of of this resource of the father. um... The need for dual earner households has changed uh the expectation of the father role. And I want to invite everyone to... think about how you can support father involvement, how you can help a father feel more competent and comfortable when he is with his child. um especially with with his infant. Sometimes it can be something as simple as complimenting the way that he fixes his daughter's hair or praising the outfit that he chose for his son. Instead of sharing that joke that, that we typically share when a father does something that we don't necessarily like.
