Moms: Stash that cell phone at dinner

Moms: want to stay connected with your kid or kids? Lose that cell phone or tablet at dinnertime. Seems pretty logical, right? Well, now it’s scientifically proven thanks to a recent Boston University School of Medicine study that’s highlighted in an article by HealthDay News (via WebMD) and published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

One of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Jenny Radesky, and her colleagues “found that the use of cellphones and other devices during meals was tied with 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children.”

And this: “Mothers with the highest use of mobile devices during meals were also much less likely to provide ‘encouragement’ to their children.”

Other experts weighed in.

“Children must have the emotional, physical and verbal presence of a loving caretaker,” pediatrician Dr. Ron Marino of Winthrop-University hospital says in the story. “When a mother is distracted by electronic media, the opportunities to develop language and social cognition are diminished or lost.”

Read the rest at WebMD.com.