Check This Out!!! Mobile Dad app helps military fathers stay connected with family

Military dads who are separated from their children for extended periods can feel a sense of disconnection that’s hard to reverse once they come home. But a new phone app called Mobile Dad — developed and tested by University of Michigan researchers — is helping to keep fathers

Mobile Dad provides fathers with regular updates on milestones their kids should be experiencing and offers suggestions for how to handle a variety of situations, such things as coping with crying babies or what to do if they feel themselves slipping into depression.

Shawna J. Lee, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, and her colleagues came up with the idea of the app at the request of the U.S. Air Force, which is concerned that fathers’ emotional struggles could affect their work.

Mobile Dad “pushes information out to dads twice a week,” Lee says. “It’s a little snippet about your baby’s development. If you have a six-month-old, that’s about the time they start eating solid food, [so] it will say ‘visit the mobile app to find out more about solid food.’”

Mobile Dad, which has so far been available only to select families for testing, will be available to the public in April, Lee said.