The Dads of Disabled Children Research Advisory Group was set-up in 2019 and was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to Dr Emma Langley, a Researcher interested in the well-being of disabled children and their families. The group involves fathers of disabled children from Coventry and surrounding areas.

The aim of the group is to build links between family researchers and fathers of disabled children. During Covid-19, group members met virtually to share and discuss research findings related to father well-being and together created a resource that they hope will be useful for other fathers raising a disabled child.

A resource for dads by dads

The dads felt that it was important to share their experiences and ‘what works’ for them in terms of looking after themselves and their family. They also wanted to create something dynamic and non-text based, so opted to share their experiences over Zoom and have these edited into videos. The videos are organised into key themes which the dads felt were important to discuss and are underpinned by theory and research.

Using the resource

The videos can be viewed in any order, however it is recommended that you start by viewing the brief ‘Introduction’ video.

We hope that the resource will reassure other dads of disabled children and help them to be the best dad that they can be. We do, however, recognise that everyone’s experiences are different, and that the advice given by the dads in this group may not be relevant to all.

The dads are keen for this resource to be shared widely.