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In recent years, a literature has emerged describing contributions fathers make to the development of very young children. Scholars suggest that active play may be a specific area of parenting in which fathers are primary and, further, that this type of play helps children experience intense emotions and learn to regulate them. However, this hypothesis remains largely theoretical. The current study (N = 415) addresses this gap in fatherhood research by using a secondary analysis of data collected in the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP) Fathering Substudy (Boller et al., 2006; Love et al., 2005) to examine relations between fathers' active play (measured at children's 36-month birthday-related assessment) and developmental outcomes (cognitive–social and emotion regulation) at the entry to kindergarten. Findings demonstrate that regular active physical play between fathers and …