The prompt hypothesis: clarification requests as corrective input for grammatical errors

The potential of clarification questions (CQs) to act as a form of corrective input for young children's grammatical errors was examined. Corrective responses were operationalized as those occasions when child speech shifted from erroneous to correct (E -> C) contingent on a clarification question. It was predicted that E -> C sequences would prevail over shifts in the opposite direction (C -> E), as can occur in the case of nonerror-contingent CQs. This prediction was tested via a standard intervention paradigm, whereby every 60s a sequence of two clarification requests (either specific or general) was introduced into conversation with a total of 45 2- and 4-year-old children. For 10 categories of grammatical structure, E -> C sequences predominated over their C -> E counterparts, with levels of E -> C shifts increasing after two clarification questions. Children were also more reluctant to repeat erroneous forms than their correct counterparts, following the intervention of CQs. The findings provide support for Saxton's prompt hypothesis, which predicts that error-contingent CQs bear the potential to cue recall of previously acquired grammatical forms

Increasing food familiarity without the tears. A role for visual exposure?

Research has established the success of taste exposure paradigms as a means of increasing children’s acceptance, and liking, of previously unfamiliar or disliked foods. Yet, parents report that they tend to avoid the stress associated with repeatedly offering their children foods that are likely to be rejected. Given that successful taste exposure programmes often enhance children’s familiarity with a food’s appearance, as well as its taste, this article reviews the potential for exposure interventions that do not require repeated tastings to bring about positive attitude changes towards healthy foods. Recent evidence from studies that expose toddlers to picture books about fruit and vegetables suggest that familiarity with the origins and appearance of unfamiliar foods might increase children’s willingness to accept these into their diets

Combining representations in working memory: A brief report

A task combining both digit and Corsi memory tests was administered to a group of 75 children. The task is shown to share variance with standardized reading and maths attainments, even after partialling out performance on component tasks separately assessed. The emergent task property may reflect coordination skills, although several different refinements can be made to this general conclusion

Exposure to foods’ non-taste sensory properties: a nursery intervention to increase children’s willingness to try fruit and vegetables

Activities that engage young children with the sensory properties of foods are popular with nursery schools, despite the lack of evidence for their efficacy in increasing children's consumption of healthy foods. This study provides the first empirical exploration of the effectiveness of a non-taste sensory activity program in a nursery school setting. Ninety-two children aged between 12 and 36 months were allocated to either an intervention group, who took part in looking, listening, feeling and smelling activities with unusual fruits and vegetables every day for four weeks, or to a non-intervention control group. In a subsequent mealtime taste test, children touched and tasted more of the vegetables to which they had been familiarized in their playtime activities than of a matched set of non-exposed foods. The results demonstrate that hands-on activities with unfamiliar fruits and vegetables can enhance children’s willingness to taste these foods, and confirm the potential for such activities to support healthy eating initiatives

Healthy happy family eating: development and feasibility of an online intervention to improve family eating behaviours

Unhealthy eating in children is a global problem, associated with poor long-term health outcomes and evidence indicates that unhealthy eating habits developed early in life may track into adulthood. Increasingly, description of behaviour change intervention development is encouraged. This paper describes the development and refinement of an online intervention designed to improve family eating behaviours. Part 1 describes three pilot studies designed to collect quantitative and qualitative feedback about the intervention to inform its development. This is followed by Part 2, which describes an additional study covering other formative work involved in developing the intervention, including theoretical approaches, evidence-base review and stakeholder input. The resulting, robustly refined intervention is described, the efficacy of which is being evaluated by a randomised controlled trial

Healthy eating interventions delivered in the family home: a systematic review

Unhealthy eating habits have long term health implications and can begin at a young age when children still consume the majority of their meals at home. As parents are the principal agents of change in children’s eating behaviours, the home environment is the logical location for the delivery of interventions targeting healthy family eating. Despite the recent proliferation of published studies of behaviour-change interventions delivered in the home, there has been little attempt to evaluate what makes such interventions successful. This review provides a systematic evaluation of all healthy eating interventions delivered to families in the home environment to date and seeks to identify the successful elements of these interventions and make recommendations for future work. Thirty nine studies are described, evaluated and synthesised. Results show that evidence- and theory-based interventions tended to be more successful than those that did not report detailed formative or evaluative work although details of theory application were often lacking. Careful analysis of the results did not show any further systematic similarities shared by successful interventions. Recommendations include the need for more clearly theoretically driven interventions, consistent approaches to measuring outcomes and clarity regarding target populations and desired outcomes

Let’s look at leeks! Picture books increase toddlers’ willingness to look at, taste and consume unfamiliar vegetables

Repeatedly looking at picture books about fruits and vegetables with parents enhances young children’s visual preferences towards the foods in the book (Houston-Price et al, 2009) and influences their willingness to taste these foods (Houston-Price, Butler & Shiba, 2009). This article explores whether the effects of picture book exposure are affected by infants' initial familiarity with and liking for the foods presented. In two experiments parents of 19- to 26-month-old toddlers were asked to read a picture book about a liked, disliked or unfamiliar fruit or vegetable with their child every day for two weeks. The impact of the intervention on both infants’ visual preferences and their eating behaviour was determined by the initial status of the target food, with the strongest effects for foods that were initially unfamiliar. Most strikingly, toddlers consumed more of the unfamiliar vegetable they had seen in their picture book than of a matched control vegetable. Results confirm the potential for picture books to play a positive role in encouraging healthy eating in your children

Parents’ experiences of introducing toddlers to fruits and vegetables through repeated exposure, with and without prior visual familiarization to foods: evidence from daily diaries

While repeated exposure is an established method for inducing food acceptance in young children, little is known about parents’ experiences of repeatedly offering new or disliked foods at home. In this study, parents kept structured diary records during a 15-day period in which they offered their 2-year-old child daily tastes of one fruit and one vegetable. We explored how children’s acceptance of foods (measured in terms of willingness to taste, liking and intake) and the ease and enjoyment of the process for parents changed from the early (days 1-5) to middle (days 6-10) to later (days 11-15) phases of exposure. In addition, we explored whether prior visual familiarization to foods affected children’s behavior and/or parents’ experiences during exposure. Families were randomly assigned to look at a picture book about one to-be-exposed food for the two weeks prior to the exposure phase (‘fruit book’ and ‘vegetable book’ groups) or to a control group, who did not receive a book. Measures obtained from parents’ diary records revealed increases in willingness to taste and intake of vegetables and increased liking of both fruits and vegetables with greater exposure. Prior visual familiarization to vegetables further boosted children’s willingness to taste and liking of vegetables, and the ease and enjoyment of introducing these for parents. Children’s acceptance of foods and parents’ positivity during exposure predicted children’s liking and intake of foods 3 months later. Results confirm the potential for vegetable picture books to support parents in engaging with repeated exposure regimes and in successfully introducing vegetables into toddlers’ diets