This stimulating book explores many fascinating new understandings of the importance of a father in a child's development. Richard Fletcher, a pioneer researcher in the area of men's health and family issues, examines how a father's close bond with his baby is vital for the development of the child's healthy brain structure and their cognitive and emotional development. The Dad Factor presents explanations of why a father's involvement with his child, right from birth, is vitally important to the development of a child's brain and emotional stability. In this book, Richard Fletcher considers new findings, including how, in the first hours after birth, a baby is primed to react to the father's voice he or she heard when in the womb; how father-baby bonding matters for the child's emotional, physical, and cognitive development; and how the way that a father interacts with his baby can shape the structure of the baby's brain. The effect of a dad simply "playing around" with his child can alter the pathways formed by the neurons in the brain of that growing infant. (So fathers playing "peek-a-boo" are not wasting time, but doing the real stuff of parenting!) Additionally, Richard Fletcher addresses some contentious issues of child development, examines the evolution of a father's role, and uses feedback from men in his parenting classes to answer many questions a new father-to-be might have.