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WARM-UPS

1. DEPRESSION: Walk around the class and talk to other students about depression. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

studies / birth / paediatrics / depression / motherhood / professionals / fathers / statistics / public health concerns / childbirth / financial stress / lack of sleep / parents

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. NEW BABY: What are the stressful and nice things for dads? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

	Stressful	Nice
Pregnancy
Childbirth
The first few weeks
Money
Partner
Sleep

4. CURE: Students A strongly believe scientists will find a cure for depression one day; Students B strongly believe the opposite.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. DEPRESSION: What are the biggest factors? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. The most depressing is at the top.  Change partners and share your rankings again.

money job babies studying

family marriage society environment

6. CHILDBIRTH: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘childbirth’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	Half of all new fathers experience some form of depression.	T / F
b.	Health workers view post-natal depression as a women’s disorder.	T / F
c.	A researcher looked at data from more than 28,000 fathers.	T / F
d.	American fathers experienced less depression than the world average.	T / F
e.	The lead researcher said his results show a major public health worry.	T / F
f.	A depressed mother has minimal effect on the father’s state of mind.	T / F
g.	Around a quarter of mothers get depressed after childbirth.	T / F
h.	The researcher said a depressed father will make the baby depressed.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	study	a.	information
2	lead	b.	as much as
3.	viewed	c.	probable
4.	data	d.	top
5.	likely	e.	worry
6.	significant	f.	report
7.	concern	g.	absence
8.	up to	h.	whole
9.	lack	i.	seen as
10.	entire	j.	huge

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	10 per cent of fathers suffer	a.	experience depression
2	viewed as a disorder	b.	of sleep
3.	the findings of 43	c.	public health concern
4.	men were the most likely to	d.	more attention
5.	an international average of	e.	of motherhood
6.	his statistics represent a significant	f.	family unit
7.	we need to pay	g.	serious depression
8.	He points to a	h.	different studies
9.	a lack	i.	number of reasons
10.	the entire	j.	8.2 per cent

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

A new study has found that 10 per cent of fathers ____________ serious depression after the ____________ of their children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, said of post-natal depression: "It's viewed as a disorder of motherhood. It's not ____________ by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed the ____________ of 43 different studies into new dads becoming depressed. These involved ____________ from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men were the most ____________ to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby ____________ compared with an international ____________ of 8.2 per cent.		data findings birth blues average suffer likely viewed
Dr Paulson said the results were interesting and that his ____________ represent “a significant public health concern and something we need to pay more ____________ to.” He points to a number of reasons for post-natal depression in men. A big ____________ is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some ____________ of depression following childbirth. Another big reason is the ____________ brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father help each other. Other ____________ include a lack of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be on the ____________ for it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout the ____________ family unit.”		entire pressure statistics factor lookout form attention reasons

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

A new study has found that 10 per cent of ___________________ depression after ___________________ children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, said of post-natal depression: "It's ___________________ of motherhood. It's not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed ___________________ different studies into new dads becoming depressed. These involved data from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men ___________________ to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby blues ___________________ international average of 8.2 per cent.

Dr Paulson said the results were interesting and that ___________________ “a significant public health concern and something we need to pay more attention to.” He points to ___________________ for post-natal depression in men. A big factor is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some ___________________ following childbirth. Another big reason is the pressure brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father ___________________. Other reasons include a lack of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be ___________________ it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout ___________________.”

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘post’ and ‘natal’.

post

natal

• Share your findings with your partners.

• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

serious motherhood analyzed data likely blues

statistics pay reasons childbirth sick entire

STUDENT DEPRESSION SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about depression in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

DEPRESSION DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘depression’?
c)	Was there anything that surprised you in this article?
d)	What do you think of fathers’ post-natal depression?
e)	Why do you think this problem has not been viewed seriously?
f)	Do you know any parents who suffered from post-natal depression?
g)	Why do you think American dads suffer from post-natal depression more than dads from other countries?
h)	Do you think you’d get post-natal depression?
i)	Do you think fathers got post-natal depression thousands of years ago?
j)	What things do you get depressed about?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Do you think Dr Paulson’s results represent a “significant health concern”?
c)	What can we do to pay more attention to post-natal depression?
d)	What are the biggest reasons for post-natal depression?
e)	How can families help mothers and fathers more?
f)	What can society do to provide more help to new parents?
g)	How are you after a lack of sleep?
h)	Do you think post-natal depression in parents can affect the baby?
i)	What’s the best way of treating depression?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Dr Paulson?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A new study has found that 10 per cent of fathers (1) ____ serious depression after the birth of their children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics  at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, (2) ____ of post-natal depression: "It's viewed as a (3) ____ of motherhood. It's not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed the        (4) ____ of 43 different studies (5) ____ new dads becoming depressed. These involved data from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men were the most likely to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby (6) ____ compared with an international average of 8.2 per cent.

Dr Paulson said the results were (7) ____ and that his statistics represent “a significant public health concern and something we need to (8) ____ more attention to.” He points to a number of reasons for post-natal depression in men. A big factor is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some form of depression (9) ____ childbirth. Another big reason is the pressure brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father help each other. Other reasons include a (10) ____ of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be on the (11) ____ for it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout the (12) ____ family unit.”

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	suffers	(b)	suffering	(c)	sufferers	(d)	suffer
2.	(a)	said	(b)	talked	(c)	spoke	(d)	whispered
3.	(a)	out of order	(b)	disorder	(c)	orderly	(d)	order
4.	(a)	funding	(b)	founding	(c)	findings	(d)	foundering
5.	(a)	onto	(b)	in	(c)	into	(d)	at
6.	(a)	greens	(b)	blues	(c)	reds	(d)	yellows
7.	(a)	interests	(b)	interested	(c)	interest	(d)	interesting
8.	(a)	pay	(b)	buy	(c)	cost	(d)	sell
9.	(a)	follows	(b)	following	(c)	follower	(d)	follow
10.	(a)	lock	(b)	lick	(c)	luck	(d)	lack
11.	(a)	looks	(b)	looking	(c)	lookout	(d)	looked
12.	(a)	entire	(b)	all	(c)	every	(d)	everything

WRITING

Write about depression for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

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_____________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about post-natal depression. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. DEPRESSION: Make a poster about depression. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. DEPRESSED: Write a magazine article about a mother and father, both suffering from post-natal depression. They both think they are suffering most.  Include imaginary interviews with them.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to Dr Paulson. Ask him three questions about post-natal depression. Give him three ideas how he could treat patients. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

T

c.

T

d.

F

e.

T

f.

F

g.

T

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	study	a.	report
2	lead	b.	top
3.	viewed	c.	seen as
4.	data	d.	information
5.	likely	e.	probable
6.	significant	f.	huge
7.	concern	g.	worry
8.	up to	h.	as much as
9.	lack	i.	absence
10.	entire	j.	whole

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	10 per cent of fathers suffer	a.	serious depression
2	viewed as a disorder	b.	of motherhood
3.	the findings of 43	c.	different studies
4.	men were the most likely to	d.	experience depression
5.	an international average of	e.	8.2 per cent
6.	his statistics represent a significant	f.	public health concern
7.	we need to pay	g.	more attention
8.	He points to a	h.	number of reasons
9.	a lack	i.	of sleep
10.	the entire	j.	family unit

GAP FILL:

Dads get post-natal depression too

A new study has found that 10 per cent of fathers suffer serious depression after the birth of their children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, said of post-natal depression: "It's viewed as a disorder of motherhood. It's not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed the findings of 43 different studies into new dads becoming depressed. These involved data from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men were the most likely to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby blues compared with an international average of 8.2 per cent.

Dr Paulson said the results were interesting and that his statistics represent “a significant public health concern and something we need to pay more attention to.” He points to a number of reasons for post-natal depression in men. A big factor is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some form of depression following childbirth. Another big reason is the pressure brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father help each other. Other reasons include a lack of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be on the lookout for it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout the entire family unit.”

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - b

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - d

8 - a

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

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