According to a study published today in Behavioral Neuroscience, dads are more attentive and responsive to toddler daughters’ needs than fathers with sons of the same age. Researchers studied the brain scans and random, daily recordings of interactions of a group of fathers and found that they “sang more often to their daughters and spoke more openly about emotions, including sadness, possibly because they are more accepting of girls’ feelings than boys’.”

And it’s not just the touchy-feely stuff that dads doled out liberally to their daughters — what they said was different, too. Fathers with young sons tended to focus on achievements and more physical, rough-and-tumble play, using words like “win,” “proud” and “top” more often than with girls. On the flip side, dads with daughters used more analytical, detail-oriented words like such as “all” and “much.” The study authors noted that this kind of language has been linked to future educational and academic achievement.