Children’s lives are enhanced by the presence of a father, said a psychology professor from the University of California in Riverside.

Ross Parke spoke about a wide range of fatherhood issues to a group of 80 people Tuesday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

“Fathers do matter,” he said. “They matter for social development, cognitive development and emotional development. Kids do better when fathers are involved. They’re more sensitive.”

Parke also said ideas about fathers being less nurturing than mothers or incapable of care-giving are not true.

“Fathers are not incompetent, even with babies,” he said. “Babies trust their fathers just as much as they trust their mothers.”

While mothers spend more time overall with babies, fathers tend to use the time they have with their children playing.

“You’ve got very different play between fathers and mother,” Parke said. “Fathers don’t use toys as much.”

Fathers tend to have more physical play style with their kids, Parke said, with a lot of roughhousing and throwing kids up in the air.

Parke emphasized that boys and men can be taught parenting skills. Practice such as baby-sitting is a good way for boys to get experience and practice parenting.

“We really need to provide boys more opportunities to practice their parenting skills,” he said.

There are several ways to teach men parenting skills as well, Parke said. Some are simple and obvious, such as showing a 15-minute video about parenting to men after their children are born. Research shows men who have watched these kinds of videos have a higher level of involvement with their babies, he said.

“Fathers can be taught. Men can learn new tricks,” Parke said.

Jered Prostrollo, senior in architecture, said he was surprised at the general tone Parke’s lecture took. He said he liked the idea of giving fathers information about parenting after the birth of a child.

“It seems to make perfect sense,” he said.