As an occupational therapist and as a parent, my heart breaks when I notice the epidemic of children who are glued to the screens while they eat .
Yes, it is convenient and gives immediate results that children eat faster and better focus on their screens rather than on their dishes.
Unfortunately, connecting kids to screens during meals is one of the biggest parenting traps that has devastating long-term consequences.
What are children deprived of when they use screens during meals?
– Practice communication and social skills, such as eye contact and conversation skills
– Learn table education
– Learn to taste food and become a conscious eater
– Develop self-regulation, attention and delay gratification
What do they get by eating with gadgets?
– A sense of alienation
– Sensory overload
– They get used to eating under a high and continuous level of stimulation provided by the screens
They perceive meals and social interaction as “boring” if not paired with electronic devices.
What should parents do?
- Impose a rule: no screen during meals
- If your child is already addicted to eating with gadgets, then you have to “recondition” the child’s brain by replacing the screens with something more stimulating:
– Roll a dice and eat a corresponding number of spoons
– Eat with hinged chopsticks and a spoon with a whistle
– Eat food in the shape of a face or in a tray-table game (“winner dinner plate”)
– Drink from a worm-shaped straw.
- Follow a gradual process to the point that the child can eat without external stimulation.
Meals represent an invaluable moment to relate to people, not to screens. We have to free the meals from the screens!
