Division of Psychology, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Hawthorn Building, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom.
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Hawthorn Building, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom.
Appetite. 2018 Jan 1;120:609-615. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2017.10.011. Epub 2017 Oct 7.
Recent research has found an association between dislike of messy play and higher levels of food neophobia in children. The aim of the present study was to pilot and assess a five week intervention with preschool children, to examine whether engagement in tactile sensory tasks leads to increased fruit acceptance. Interventions were carried out to examine whether weekly sessions of sensory play combined with fruit exposure, would increase acceptance and enjoyment of fruits to a greater extent than two non-sensory play conditions featuring fruit exposure or normal play activities alone. One hundred children aged 18 months to four years were recruited from ten playgroups in the Midlands area of the United Kingdom (UK) of which 83 completed the interventions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: combined sensory play (fruit and non-food), non-food sensory play, fruit taste exposure, and control play. There were baseline differences in child fruit acceptance, so this was entered as a covariate into subsequent analyses. It was found that children in both the combined sensory play and non-food sensory play conditions enjoyed significantly more fruits at follow up than children in the control play condition, whilst children in the non-food sensory play group also enjoyed significantly more fruits than the fruit exposure group. These findings suggest that sensory play, with fruit and/or non-food substances, combined with exposure may be an effective strategy to increase tasting and fruit acceptance in children.
最近的研究发现，儿童不喜欢乱涂乱画与更高水平的食物恐惧之间存在关联。本研究的目的是对学龄前儿童进行为期五周的干预试验，以检验参与触觉感知任务是否会导致水果接受度的提高。干预措施旨在检验每周进行一次感官游戏，同时接触水果，是否会比仅进行两次非感官游戏（接触水果或进行正常游戏活动）更能提高对水果的接受度和喜爱程度。从英国中部地区的 10 个游戏小组中招募了 100 名 18 个月至 4 岁的儿童（UK），其中 83 名完成了干预措施。参与者被随机分配到以下四个条件之一：组合感官游戏（水果和非食物）、非食物感官游戏、水果口味暴露和对照游戏。儿童对水果的接受度存在基线差异，因此将其作为协变量纳入后续分析。结果发现，与对照组相比，组合感官游戏和非食物感官游戏组的儿童在随访时更喜欢吃水果，而与非食物感官游戏组相比，水果暴露组的儿童更喜欢吃水果。这些发现表明，结合水果和/或非食物物质的感官游戏，再加上接触，可能是增加儿童尝试和接受水果的有效策略。
