A recent TIME.com article warns of the cost too much screen time could be having on our kids’ social skills. In a study by researchers at UCLA, a group of 51 kids who were given a five-day break from screen time were able to recognize non-verbal emotional cues such as “facial expressions, body language and gestures” and scored way higher than another group of 54 kids who did not have the same five-day break from technology and screen times.

Of course, nobody wants their kids to grow up being socially impaired because they’ve grown more accustomed to relating to a flat-screened digital world versus a human one. So how do we offset the effects of modern, high-tech living? One easy way is to commit to a daily shared meal with your family.

Here are a few examples of the social benefits of the shared-meal ritual:

-Your kids will develop table manners (the basics).

-They’ll practice self-expression (asserting themselves, telling someone how they feel).

-They’ll learn how to read others’ emotions (through expressions, gestures, body language).

-They’ll experience live conversation (in real time; thinking on your feet).

-They’ll learn to share (through the give and take of meal activities).

-They’ll build vocabulary and literacy (through storytelling and imagination).

-They’ll interact within a social group (after all, the first one you ever have is your family).

Carol Archambeault is the founder and author of The Shared-Meal Revolution: How to Reclaim Balance and Connection in a Fragmented World through Sharing Meals with Family and Friends. If you’d like to learn about her book and how to keep your digital natives socially-skilled through a shared-meal ritual, please visit her website here.

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