After dinner at Todd and Jodie Schiermeier's house in O'Fallon, Ill., it is "tackle Dad" time. That's when Mr. Schiermeier gets down on the floor with their three children, Rylee, 7, Kinsey, 4, and Jace, 20 months, for a session of "horseback rides and pillow fights and tackle and wrestle," he says.

It is a stark contrast to Ms. Schiermeier's playtime with the kids, who says she mostly cuddles them or has "a little tickle fight."

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The rough play is already benefiting her older daughter, who is "a little timid," Ms. Schiermeier says. "She has toughened up a little" playing with her dad. "He is teaching her how to take the blows of life, and to get in there and fight." All three kids are learning to take turns and work as a team. For Mr. Schiermeier, that is intentional: "I push them to get outside their comfort zones."

Temper Tantrums Temper Tantrums Dave Whamond DADS: Tend to correct the child with a few blunt, directive words and a glare. They also may distract the child with a joke, which helps kids develop resiliency. MOMS: Tend to get more upset or overwhelmed. They'll try to reason with the child, explaining why the behavior is inappropriate and what to do instead. This can teach children to express their feelings in words and talk through solutions.

As an estimated 70.1 million fathers prepare to celebrate Father's Day in the U.S., recent research shows that their distinct style of parenting is particularly worth recognition: The way dads tend to interact has long-term benefits for kids, independent of those linked to good mothering.

Beyond rough-and-tumble play, men tend to challenge crying or whining children to use words to express themselves. Men are more likely to startle their offspring, making faces or sneaking up on them to play. Even the way parents hold babies tends to differ, with men cradling infants under their arm in a "football hold" and moms using the "Madonna position" seen in Renaissance artwork—tucked under their chins face-to-face, says Kyle Pruett, co-author of "Partnership Parenting" and a clinical professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

Of course, both mothers and fathers can provide the basics of good parenting—warmth, support, supervision and positive discipline. Women and men can play either "mothering" or "fathering" roles by changing their behavior. The average behavioral differences between large samples of moms and dads are small, in statistical terms. Also, their roles overlap a lot. For example, both parents spend a large share of their time with children in play—35% for fathers, and 29% for mothers, based on a University of Illinois analysis.

Minor Injuries Minor Injuries Dave Whamond DADS: Tend to distract the child by directing her attention to another activity or carrying her to another part of the playground. This can help kids develop the resiliency needed to shake off small setbacks and move on. MOMS: Tend to comfort and soothe the child and encourage her to talk about what she is feeling. This can help a child feel secure and safe and express emotions in words.

The benefits of involved fathering are known: improved cognitive skills, fewer behavioral problems among school-age children, less delinquency among teenage boys and fewer psychological problems in young women, based on an analysis of 16 long-term studies of father involvement, published in 2008 in the scholarly journal Acta Paediatrica.

Some of dads' behavior may spring from their roles as family breadwinners. Although mothers play a significant role in the workforce, men are still the primary breadwinners in more than three-fourths of married-couple households.

And 48% of working fathers spend less than six hours a day with their children, compared with 31% of working mothers, according to a recent poll of 459 working adults by Workplace Options, a provider of employee-assistance and work-life programs in Raleigh, N.C.

As a result, fathers may be less familiar with their children's nonverbal cues. Such dads tend to challenge children more to express themselves in words, helping foster the better cognitive skills researchers have found in 2-year-olds with involved fathers.

Parenting patterns may be rooted in neurological differences. Under stress, research shows, men's brains are wired to respond to challenges physically, leaping into action. Women are more likely to withdraw or shut down.

Frustration With Toys Frustration With Toys Dave Whamond DADS: Tend to avoid intervening, while encouraging the child to stick with it. This can help the child develop the skills to solve problems independently. MOMS: Tend quietly to re-arrange the toy so the child can put it together more easily and enjoy feeling successful. This can help develop self confidence.

Because fathers have had to learn to manage their own impulses to strike out or react physically to frustration, they may be better equipped than mothers to help children manage their own urges to behave badly, Dr. Pruett says.

Indeed, fathers typically aren't as upset as mothers by kids' tantrums or bad behavior, based on a 2009 survey of 1,615 parents by Zero to Three, a nonprofit child-development research and policy organization. Only half as many fathers as mothers say their children's temper tantrums are one of their biggest challenges.

Fathers' impact on kids' behavior may begin as early as infancy, a 2009 analysis in Behavioral and Brain Sciences suggests. Mothers tend to keep their babies calm, gazing at them, babbling together and affectionately touching them, based on video analyses of mothers and fathers interacting with their 5-month-old infants.

In contrast, fathers tend to get the babies more excited and laughing, often playing physical games that startle or arouse them.

The differences persist as children grow older. Research shows that mothers of older children tend to talk more with their children about their frustrations, while fathers may try to distract a child and encourage him or her to move on.

Playtime Playtime Dave Whamond DADS: Interactions are more rambunctious and physical. Dads are more likely to startle babies, laugh, play physical games such as tossing them in the air, and spark peaks of emotion or excitement. This is believed to help kids develop self-regulatory skills. MOMS: Tend to interact face-to-face with babies, babbling back and forth, responding to subtle shifts in facial expressions and touching the baby affectionately. This is believed to teach children to read facial expressions, use words to communicate and to enjoy close, intimate contact.

Another reason involved fathers help kids, of course, is that families often function better when two parents are working as a team to give children what they need, supporting each other's efforts.

Since Callip and Christine Hall, who live in Cary, N.C., became parents nearly three years ago, they have noticed differences in their parenting. When their 2-year-old daughter, Ella, fell off her chair recently, Mr. Hall picked her up and carried her away from the table to distract her. He says he wants to teach her that "we're not going to cater to the whimpering if she's not really in pain," and he sees Ella learning to shake off minor setbacks and move on.

"I'm more verbose," Ms. Hall says. I would have immediately started saying, 'Oh, Ella, tell Mommy what happened. Are you OK?' " she says. But while "my mothering instinct was to go over there and hover," she says, she restrained herself while Ella cried for a few moments, then joined her husband to pat Ella's back and soothe her.

Soon, "between efforts by both of us, we were able to get her to calm down," Ms. Hall says. "Neither one of us thinks one way of parenting is right or wrong. It's just different." In the end, she adds, "we are complementary."

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com