Art Play with Daddy: Father-Child Play with Art Materials at Home

Paternal involvement in household and childcare has increased over the past century, but global studies show that most mothers still remain responsible for a significantly higher proportion of total household care and childcare. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has further negatively impacted mothers, who take on the majority of childcare responsibilities. However, scholars agree that a father’s devotion to playing with the child fosters the child’s cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development. Acknowledging and approaching art as a dynamic and integrated play, this qualitative case study investigates five South Korean father-child dyads and their interactions while playing with art materials. The participants engaged in three thematic art sessions designed by the author. Data collection involved audio and video recordings of each session, surveys of adult participants, and photos of finished artworks. The study found that fathers’ varied educational backgrounds and perceptions of their abilities to facilitate arts learning influenced their confidence in teaching the arts at home. Furthermore, having a theme and prompting questions assisted the fathers to facilitate more focused art play. The art play also provided the father-child dyads with arts learning opportunities, including learning and distinguishing colors and recognizing stereotypes associated with colors. Moreover, one-on-one interaction between the dyads helped them build a more intimate bond. This study presents specific examples of art activities and participants’ responses, which might offer insights and educational implications for paternal involvement in child play and thematic art play at home.