Parents, put down your phone! Being distracted while playing with babies causes them to grow up with attention problems

Fiddling with your phone while playing with your baby could lead to them growing up with a shorter attention span. That's the warning from a group of psychologists who found toddlers find it hard to focus if their parents or other caregivers are distracted while playing with them. The study is the first to show a direct connection between how long a caregiver looks at an object and how long an infant's attention remains focused on that same object. It may also serve as a warning to many parents who juggle work and childcare by keeping a near constant eye on their phone. 'The ability of children to sustain attention is known as a strong indicator for later success in areas such as language acquisition, problem-solving and other key cognitive development milestones,' said Chen Yu of Indiana University who led the study.