‘The soup and the spoon’: the Relationship Between Food Rejection and Thematic Categorization Development in young children (3-6 years)

Abstract : Research has identified a negative relationship between food rejection and categorization performance in young children. Thematic categorization is the cognitive process of grouping objects based on their common association, which allows for useful inferences, such as putting ketchup on a hot dog. A preliminary study with 48 American children and a follow-up study with 129 French children, utilized a forced choice triad task to measure children’s development in different thematic food associations, and the link to food rejection. Results revealed a significant developmentalmaturation in thematic food categorization ability from 3 to 6 years of age. Functional relationships (e.g. soup-spoon) appear to be mastered earliest, followed closely by co-occurring foods (e.g. bread-butter). Event-based categories (e.g. popcorn-movie theatre) and meal-based categories (e.g. breakfast foods) showed later development. Furthermore, children with high levels of food rejection showed a significant developmental delay in mastering cooccurring food pairs, in comparisonwith other children. This novel research indicates that thematic food based learning could be an efficient strategy to foster dietary variety and food acceptance in young children.