Messy eating leads to Exploration

Stop playing with your food!  Did you ever hear this as a kid?

A recent study published in Developmental Science concluded that toddlers learn better when given the opportunity to play with their food.  16-month-old children were taught new names for foods like jelly and syrup, then tested to see if they could connect those names with the foods when they were presented in different colors and shapes.

couscous and avocados

The psychologists who did this research were interested in the question of how babies learn about “nonsolid” objects. “We had noticed in our lab work before that children are much better at learning names for new solid objects that they didn’t know before,” said Lynn Perry, now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and lead author of the study.

Solid objects such as cup, ball or chair are much easier to identify.  But when exploring softer foods, it is more imperative for kids to use all of their senses such as taste, touch, and smell to really grasp what is in front of them.  The messy eater experiment is also about play, and the way that children explore their worlds and learn as they go.  Toddlers play with their food because toddlers play with their worlds.  And by playing and exploring, they accumulate all kinds of data, which helps them put together a picture and a vocabulary for the world around them.

Our households have so many screens between tv, computers, iPods, and smart phones which offers less chance of exploration.  Sitting down at meal time is a great time to get creative and investigate.  “These simple everyday activities like eating that we might take for granted, for the child really are rich sources of information,” Dr. Perry said.

The next time your kid wants to play with their food, let them explore…

be well-