this ppt describes about the importance of food during pre-school period, growth and development during this period, need for planning a nutritious diet and states the cognitive development during this period.

2. Introduction
• The rapid growth during infancy is followed by
a generally slow growth between one to six
years.
• The child becomes more active and the social
and environmental influences have a great
impact on his food behavior and eating
pattern.
• Development of full dentition by the end of
two years increases the range of foods that
can safely be eaten.

3. DEFINITIONS
Growth:
The change in weight, height, and circumference of head.
ChildDevelopment:
The process of change in which a child comes to master
more and more complex levels of physical activity, thinking,
feeling, communicating and interactions with people and objects.
This is sometimes expressed as physical, cognitive, emotional and
social development.
Earlychildhood:
The period between birth and eight years of age.

4. Pre-school period

5. Pre-school period
• The need for nutrients is increased as growth
and development continues.
• Although growth is relatively slower in
childhood than in infancy, it is extremely
important that the diet provides appropriate
amount of nutrients.
• Children who double their birth weight in the
first year requires the whole preschool period
to double it again

6. Growthanddevelopment
• Growth is an increase in size of the body
or any part of the body.
• It includes an increase in cell number
and cell size.
• Development entails the maturation of
body tissues, organs and metabolic
system so that the intended functions
can be performed.

7. • During the second year, the increase in height
is about 10cm and weight gain is 2 to 2.5 kg.
• The preschool child grows relatively more in
height and becomes taller and thinner.
• His arms and legs become longer in
proportion to his trunk, his short infant neck
becomes longer.

8. Heightandweight
• The head at birth accounted for about 1/4th of
his total length grows more slowly and thus
constitutes a smaller fraction of his total
height.
• After two years annual gain in height and
weight is only six to seven cm and 1.5 to 2 kg
respectively.

9. Bodyproportion
• As growth proceeds, changes occur in
proportion of water, muscle tissue, fat
deposits and skeletal structure.
• The body water gradually decreases and
there is addition of adipose tissue and that of
minerals to the bones.
• The chubby appearance of the baby begins to
disappear by 4 years of age.
• The head growth is slow, limb growth is rapid
and trunk growth is intermediate.

10. Bonedevelopment
• It consists of growth of
–bone size
–change in the number of bones
–change in their composition

11. Developmentofteeth
• Most of the primary teeth have
erupted by his third birthday.
• These teeth will remain in the gums
until about six or seven.

12. Developmentofnervoussystem
• The growth of the nervous
system is very rapid before birth
and in the first three or four
years after birth.

13. Braingrowth
• This is rapid during pre-school years.
• The brain is about 75% of its adult
weight at 5 years and it is 90% of
adult weight at 8 years.

14. Growthofmuscles
• The muscles play a major role in
regulating the vital organs of the
body, such as heart, digestive
system and the glands up to 5 years
of age, the muscle grow in
proportion to increase in body
weight.

15. Psychosocial changes
• Psychosocial changes also take place.
• As he steps into the second year he
develops a sense of individuality which
is distinct and is reflected in his food
behavior.
• With advancing age there is an
increasing sense of independence,
initiative, imagination and curiosity.

16. Psychosocial changes
• Preschool age is also a period of imitation
and sex identification, with boys imitating
their fathers and girls their mothers.
• Such behavior is reflected at meal times and
therefore the parents play an important role
in inculcating healthy and positive attitude
towards food.

18. Developing good eating habits
• Encourage children to experiment
• Plan snack and meal times
• Allow plenty of time
• Develop social skills
• Provide good role models

19. Needfordevelopinggoodfoodhabits
• The preschool years are ones that
create a number of concerns about
food intake.
• Nearly two out of three preschool
children in India are malnourished.

20. Factorsin planninga diet
• The diet should be adequate in quantity and quality
of different nutrients.
• In addition to the amount of milk recommended,
the pre school child should have two servings of
protein rich foods.
• When the child is about 18 months old, finger foods
such as carrots can be given
• Proper elimination is usually maintained by a daily
diet of fruits, vegetables and whole grain products.

21. Factorsin planninga diet
• The diet should include a variety of foods.
• The child who is taught to eat everything on his plate is
much more likely to enjoy optimal health than is the
one who picks and chooses.
• The child should have access to items from all food
groups on a regular basis.
• Their food intake will improve if the food is interesting
and attractive e.g., chapathis, puris can be made into
shapes or can be served in attractive plates.
• Flavor or colour of the milk can be changed to
encourage the child to drink more milk.

22. Factorsin planninga diet
• Children are sensitive to flavors, any change in
flavor of daily food may lead to its rejection.
• Food preferences of the child should be taken into
consideration.
• Regularity of meal time is essential.
• Different cooking methods and new attractive
combination encourage the child to eat more.

23. Factorsin planninga diet
• The child should never be hurried while taking the
food.
• The atmosphere should be pleasant, peaceful and
lacking distraction.
• Foods like tea , coffee should be restricted as they
over stimulate the system.
• Unripe bananas and apples should not be given as
they are difficult to chew and may get choked.

24. Drinks
• Plenty to drink to help their bodies to function properly,
keep cool and prevent constipation.
• Plain water- quenches thirst, replenishes body fluid,
does not spoil the appetite and is not harmful to teeth.
• 1 - 5 years of age - whole cows milk
• Fresh fruit - vitamin C and is best given with breakfast
or a main meal to help with the absorption of iron.
• Fizzy, carbonated drinks - harmful to teeth due to their
high acid content.
• Tea and coffee - not recommended for children under 5.

25. Childrenwithspecialneedsor therapeuticdiets
• Some children will need the food - modified in a
particular way to make it easier to eat. e.g. special
needs and therapeutic diets, including those for
allergies.
• Therapeutic diets for food allergies are not uncommon
in pre-school children.
• Foods commonly associated with allergies are milk,
wheat, peanuts, fish, soya, eggs, shellfish, citrus fruits,
seeds and nuts.
• A wide range of symptoms can occur when a child is
exposed to an allergen in food, ranging from a mild
reaction to a very rapid and severe response.

27. Cognitiveprocesses
• Involve changes in the child’s thinking,
intelligence, and language.
• Cognitive developmental processes enable a
growing child to memorize a poem, imagine
how to solve a math problem, come up with a
creative strategy, or string together
meaningfully and connecting sentences.

28. COGNITION
THEORIES
PIAGET’S
THEORY
CASE’S NEO-
PIAGETIAN
THEORY
VYGOTSKY’S
THEORY

29. PreoperationalThinking
• Piaget’s stage of cognitive development from
the ages 2-7
• Piaget refers to this as the time before
children begin to be able to make truly logical
connections in their thinking
• Children are reasoning from particular to
particular rather than understanding how
particular cases relate to the whole set of
possible cases

30. Centration
• Tendency of preoperational thinkers to focus
attention on one aspect if any situation,
while ignoring others
• Concepts are limited by one outstanding
appearance or perception, to the exclusion of
true understanding based on being able to
consider the total picture

31. Egocentrism
• Inability to imagine the perspectives of
others and reflect on their own thinking
• Leads to illogical features of thought
• Animistic thinking- belief that inanimate
objects have lifelike qualities
• Magical thinking
• Rigid thinking and illogical nature of
young children’s thinking

32. Concreteness
• Preschoolers understand objects, situations,
and happenings they have experienced much
better than something they have only heard
about
• They also frequently literally interpret words,
and miss the humor of some jokes

33. Effectsof Concreteness
• Much of academic learning deals with
ABSTRACTION, and most children under the age of 7
deal with the world in concrete terms, and prior life
experiences
• If a child has not had enough first hand experiences,
then he really has a tough time in school when
everything is abstract, with few hands-on learning
opportunities

34. ConceptualWords
• Because of the preschooler’s desire to please
us, often children will memorize things, and
we will think that they have the concept,
when they only have the facts memorized.
Counting and spelling their name are 2
examples where they may know the facts,
but have no understanding of the concept

35. Assimilation
• Taking in of new information
Adaptation
• When the child has made the knowledge his
own. Piaget says that “children create
knowledge, we cannot pour it into them”.

36. Accommodation
• Process here the child takes in the new
information and then puts it with something
they already know and reach a conclusion based
upon it
• As they manipulate, experience, do interact,
observe, play, and solve problem, they organize
the information, and then move to a clear
understanding of the concept

37. CognitiveResolution
• Assimilation +
Accommodation = Adaptation