Mealtimes with Mike and Kristin: The implementation of an educational material developed to increase the vegetable intake of 3-5 year old preschool children

• Main Authors: Fernandez, Melissa T., Pinto, Roberta S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1995
• Subjects: Children > Nutrition > Psychological aspects; Food preferences in children; Vegetables in human nutrition; Puppet plays; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/3748
• Institution: De La Salle University

Six puppet shows were created by the researchers. These were all made with vegetable nutrition as the main focus. The storylines were based on information gathered from interviews, surveys, and previous studies on puppetry and vegetable nutrition. It was aimed that such a treatment would increase the consumption of vegetables among the subjects. To test this goal, 20 students aged 3-5 years old enrolled in the Vertical group of the Early Learning Center were used as the subject group. They were initially presented with two identical bowls, one containing vegetable snacks and the other containing junk food. This was done to measure the amount of vegetable snacks eaten prior to treatment. They were then divided and randomly matched. The puppet shows were then exposed only to the experimental group. Two weeks later, the exact same post test was given to them, again by serving them two bowls, one with the vegetable snacks and the other with out. The scores of the pre test and post test were then compared and analyzed. A one-tailed directional t-test was preferred due to the expectance of a positive increase in the vegetable intake of the subjects. The results supported the expected outcome. Puppet shows are therefore proven to be effective in raising the vegetable consumption of pre-school children.