The input of mothers and fathers to five-year-old children was examined, in both dyadic and whole-family interactions, to determine whether paternal input to five-year-olds was more challenging and less finely tuned than maternal input, as has been reported for interactions with younger children. Previous work has suggested that fathers' input might be particularly helpful in the development of the distanced communicative skills that develop after toddlerhood. Language of all speakers (in both family and dyadic settings) was analysed for evidence of complexity, for conversational function, and for cognitive challenge, variables that previous investigations have suggested might differentiate fathers' from mothers' language. However, in both interaction settings these mothers spoke more and more complexly than fathers and at mealtimes they were more active in initiating varied conversation topics in which the child could participate.
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