Helping Children Self-Improve Their Food Literacy and Eating Behavior through a Tangible Multi-Sensory Puzzle Game

Picky eating behavior is common in preschoolers and has been linked to a lack of food literacy with support from certain research. Recent research has focused on interventions for children’s mealtime behaviors which can lead to distraction and neglect of food literacy learning. We propose FeastyMaze, a tangible and multi-sensory interactive puzzle game for young children to improve eating behavior. With the Five-color Diet Theory, our approach enables children to actively learn about food nutrition and balanced diets. To evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of FeastyMaze, we conducted a user study with preschoolers (N = 12) who exhibited picky eating behaviors. The results showed that it effectively increased children's familiarity and understanding of food knowledge, built positive attitudes towards previously disliked foods, and had the potential to improve their eating behavior.

Xueyan Cai, Kecheng Jin, Shang Shi, Shichao Huang, Ouying Huang, Xiaodong Wang, Jiahao Cheng, Weijia Lin, Jiayu Yao, Yuqi Hu, Chao Zhang, Cheng Yao, Xueyan Cai