Published: August 05, 2009 12:21 am      

HOOVER: Make family dinner a priority

It has implications for the general well-being and health of children

Have you wondered how you, as a parent, can improve your child’s vocabulary? What about helping your child improve academically? There is something very simple a parent can do to assist with these things and also develop a stronger bond with their child — sit down together at the dinner table routinely to eat their meals.

The average family meal lasts barely 20 minutes, but few other settings in family life have such potential to influence children’s behavior and development. Sharing a meal regularly, research suggests, can boost children’s health and well-being, reducing the likelihood that they’ll become obese or use drugs, and increase the chances that they’ll do well in school.

Research from the Society for Research in Child Development says:

Regular mealtimes have a protective effect on children. Teens who eat five or more meals a week with their families are less likely to smoke cigarettes or marijuana and to abuse alcohol.

Children who take part in regular family mealtimes have more vocabulary growth and academic achievement than those who don’t.

Frequently shared mealtimes protect against obesity in children and eating disorders in preteens.

In families with young children, eating together means fewer behavior problems.

While it’s unclear exactly how frequent family mealtimes improve children’s health outcomes, families that regularly dine with their teens tend to eat more fruits and vegetables. Meals prepared at home also tend to be lower in calories and fat than restaurant meals.

Various studies have characterized three to five meals a week as regular, but no magic number ensures healthy outcomes.

Watching TV while eating disrupts mealtime patterns that may support children’s health and has been linked to obesity in children.

In contrast, what is currently occurring in most homes today during mealtime is in direct contrast to what is recommended. Parents need to make an effort to turn the current trend of mealtime being individuals eating on their own where they want, to gathering the family around the dinner table for a family meal to socialize with one another and share the day’s events. Shared mealtime will help parents stay connected with their children. Children are then more likely to make healthier choices in life and improve their academic skills.

• Wanda Hoover is a teacher with the Taylor School Corp.

• All data is from the Society for Research in Child Development at www.srcd.org under Social Policy Report on the Policy & Communications tab.