Eating properly, moving, avoiding harmful habits such as smoking and alcohol. Elementary school students are educated in healthy lifestyles through play. GiochiAMO, the project developed at La Sapienza University in Rome, shows appreciable results. A case-school, one might well say!
Let’s play, ele-ali-mental education
GiochiAMO is a project education developed by researchers from the Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases. The goal is to foster primary school-age children’s (5-9 years old) learning about Mediterranean diet and physical activity. To counter theepidemic
Of childhood obesity and overweight
, which is rampant in Italy more than elsewhere and is the cause of noncommunicable diseases
.
Game theory is the basis of educational intervention. ‘Its effectiveness,’ explains Giuseppe La Torre, who coordinates the research team, ‘is determined by scientific evidence that cognitive and behavioral aspects are strengthened by play, in this case played with cards, board games similar to the best-known ones, and competitions involving physical exercise.’
In the initial phase, researchers explain the topics of nutrition (Mediterranean food pyramid) and physical activity to pupils in all classes of pupils included in the research project. Then, in classrooms where the project is being piloted, children are divided into small groups and engaged in games revisited by the researchers with specially made cards.
Fruit wins,
junk-food
loses
Playing cards winners, at GiochiAMO, depict fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes; losers, on the other hand, represent junk food (junk-food) as hot-dog, sugary drinks, sweets and other HFSS products. (High in Fats, Sugar and Sodium). These cards are used by children to reinvent well-known games, such as:
– Pappa, which incorporates the rules of the game Tappo (better known as Shit). In the GiochiAMO version, the person who makes a complete meal of fruits and vegetables wins,
– Pyramemory, where similar cards must be paired, as in the game Memory,
– Zompa verdure, on the pattern of Skip Horse,
– Fruit and a Half, its wake of Seven and a Half.
Mangiopolis is the wise version of Monopoly, where you buy and sell nutrients instead of real estate stocks and the person who accumulates the most vitamins wins. And again, Piramidiamo engages children in making a weekly diet, inspired by the food pyramid of the Mediterranean diet, designed for GiochiAMO by Alice Mannocci, research fellow.
Physical activity is in turn encouraged through games where cognition of acquired concepts about the Mediterranean diet is expressed. In Egyptian, it is played as in Flag Stealing, in two opposing teams. When the cards in their possession are called, the contenders run to grab the flag. First-timer answers questions about the food pyramid and physical activity.
Let’s play, the results
The research is now in its fourth year of experimentation. The typical pattern of ‘
randomized clinical trial
‘
(but carried out in the field) involves evaluating the results of the intervention on the participant group, compared with a control group.
The last stage of the educational intervention measures its effectiveness by subjecting the children in both groups to the same questionnaire that was already proposed at the beginning of the training. So as to detect:
– demographic information (with confidentiality appropriate to the sample),
– knowledge of nutrition,
– eating behavior,
– physical activity performed.
The responses collected so far highlight the success of the program. ‘On nutritional knowledge, the change in the children involved in the training intervention has been significant, with skills doubled,’ explains Giuseppe La Torre. ‘The score varied on average from 3 to 6. In contrast, minimal changes were recorded in the control group. Changes in children’s behavior in the short term were also detected‘.
The scientific articles on the various editions of the project were published by SEU, Universe Publishing Company. (1) An excellent pedagogical example, which in some respects recalls the experimentation also successfully launched, last school year, under the Vivismart program.
Marta Strinati
Notes
(1) Cf.
http://www.seu-roma.it/riviste/clinica_terapeutica/apps/autos.php
.
Smoking and alcohol are the other two educational areas covered by the project. In May-June 2017, a randomized pilot study was conducted in an elementary school in Rome to increase-again through play-awareness of the negative health effects of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. The intervention was effective in educating children (aged 9-10 years) about the health harms of smoking, but ineffective for alcohol.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
