Talking While Parenting: Bad for Your Child's Attention Skills?
The hazards of talking while parenting
Listening to one side of someone’s cellphone conversation is annoying — so much more annoying than having two people chatting back and forth right next to you.
That’s because when you hear one side of a conversation, no matter how dull (“oh really? He said what? Oh, you’re so right about that…”) your brain is heavily distracted trying to fill in the blanks, says a new study in the journal Psychological Science. It can’t predict the pattern and zone out like it can when you hear both parties talking, so your attention is constantly, and sometimes painfully, drawn.
I’ve always known that it’s not ideal for me to be on my cellphone in front of my son, but it’s not just because I’m distracted. It’s more than that.
In the study, subjects were given a task that required attention, while they were exposed to a two way conversation, one side of that conversation, or a monologue recapping the conversation. Sure enough, when subjects heard only one side, they performed worse on the task than they did while listening to the other two scenarios.
So when I’m yapping away while my son is trying to build a Lego tower, chances are I’m distracting him more than I would if my husband and I were both there talking in the background. More reasons to limit our multitasking while playing with our kids.
Image: Flickr/GoodNCrazy
More from Heather Turgeon:
Do it Now: The Perfect 10 Minute Mediation
Teen Trends: Gastric Bands for Obesity?
Concussions and Cars: Why Parents Worry About the Wrong Things.
Why Kids with Language Delays are More Aggressive
Non Stick Chemicals Linked to Higher Cholesterol in Kids
Too Many Moms Still Die in Childbirth: Report
Your Baby is About to Get Chubbier: Pediatricians Are Switching Growth Charts.
Doctors Misdiagnosed in all Cases of Infant Death From Whooping Cough
Too Much Pregnancy Weight Sets Up Babies for Obesity
Antipsychotic Medications for Toddlers?
People in my family will finally understand why I get upset when they get into a long phone conversation while I’m trapped in the car with them, or eject them from the room when they take a call. Thank you, science!