Nutrition Related Activities & Children's Vocabulary

The research problem examined in this study involved an assessment of whether diverse nutrition-related educational activities (e.g. songs, games, stories, etc.) resulted in the vocabulary improvement of a small sample (N=3) of eighth grade students enrolled in the Afterschool Youth Nutrition Program.

Language is a wondrous thing--it has been said that language is what makes man Man. It follows that a language deficit may make man less than a man. (p.249)

Although Lerner was discussing language deficits related to neurobiological anomalies and dysfunctions, it can be noted that several other factors affect children's acquisition and development of language (e.g. heredity, environment, amount of verbal parent-child interaction, and so forth) One factor that is directly related to a child's ability to acquire and use language is the state of the child's health, and this factor is, in turn, directly related to nutrition (Williams & Caliendo, 1984).

It seems reasonable, therefore, to state that factors which elevate children's nutritional levels should also be associated with elevations in children's language ability. This study was designed to investigate this possibility by examining nutritional educational activities for their effects on children's vocabulary growth. The assumption was that by elevating children's nutritiona

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s of nutrition and nutrition-related activities, the booklet provides a brief history of the following classic soul foods: pork, blackeye peas, collard greens, corn or maize, yams, okra, watermelon, and peanuts. Following a brief discussion of the nutritive value of soul food are 16 recipes for making coconut ice, old-fashioned sweet potato pie, ice cream sandwiches, jazzy juices, fruit-sicles, peachy freeze, watermelon crunch, Southern spareribs, potato salad, Charleston Hop'n John, pigs feet fiesta, macaroni and cheese, greens with pork hocks, chitterlings "chitlins," and Southern fried chicken. The booklet includes a list of 29 historical July happenings; 7 math activities on place value, expanded notation, missing numerals, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; 15 creative activities; and 12 word games. Kendall & Chenoweth (1980) have developed a nutrition-related curriculum emphasizing reading and vocabulary. In their provided guide to the curriculum, entitled "Do You Read Me?", there are four supplements. Each supplement deals with a different occupational category, many of which are directly food-related. Games, puzzles, and other activities are offered to aid in developing the word recognition, vocabula
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Approximate Word count = 3680
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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