From Plate to Palate: Role of Food and Memory in Children's Cognitive Development.

Food is a key that unlocks the mind's potential, shapes memories, and forms the foundation of cognitive development in a child's educational journey. This study aims to examine how food supports active learning connecting different food products with colors, numbers, and shapes, giving children a fun-engaging learning experience and promoting cognitive growth. The research also intends to explore the role of children's memory in learning different aspects of education and culture through food. This explanatory cross-sectional and mixed-method research analyzes the symbolic role of food and the importance of ethnic culinary traditions in promoting a sense of home and belonging in children. The study selected children from three age groups--4 to 5, 7 to 8, and 11 to 12 years--using convenience, cluster, and simple random sampling methods. The findings suggest that retrieving, recognizing, and recalling episodes from stored memory stress the importance of studying children's cognitive growth in comparison with the levels of learning that can be traced in Bloom's taxonomy. Moreover, it is also inferred that food bears a complex tapestry of emotions and meanings in a child's awareness of different educational concepts and scientific facts and gives them an idea about their culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]