Features

Research: Understanding why children seek out predictability – particularly with food

Prof. Sam Wass and Dr. Gemma Goldenberg of nestkids.co.uk explain the neuroscience behind why children often prefer familiar food.
Young brains learn through repetition and predicting the outcomes of situations, including at meal times
Brains learn most effectively in situations where there is an intermediate level of predictability. - PHOTO ADOBESTOCK

It is a scenario many nursery practitioners are familiar with: a young child normally happily eats all of their chicken, but when it is prepared even a little bit differently, they refuse.

We are used to thinking that our job as practitioners is to fight against this and encourage children to eat a varied diet right from the start – by smuggling vegetables onto their plate, smothered in sauce so they don't see them, or bribing them with pudding afterwards.

In fact, though, recent advances from neuroscience suggest that this might not be the best approach and could even have the opposite effect to what you are trying to achieve. It may be that, the more you allow a child to eat a restricted diet early in development, the faster they will spontaneously try new food when they are older – and that tricking or bribing children might slow down the rate at which they do this.

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