Co-creating a gamification tool for children and parents to improve their food nutrition Knowledge and dietary habits

Abstract

Conscious, collective, and repetitive behaviours, lead people to select, consume, and use certain foods or diets, in response to social and cultural influences as well as the fact that food habits in childhood determine food habits in adulthood. The development of these food habits during childhood depends on family, culture, familiarity, and accessibility, among other factors. Likewise, seeking attractive approaches for children, based on gamification and the use of new technologies and challenges, to transfer content and knowledge can guide their behaviour towards healthier and more sustainable food choices. A platform consisting in an interactive place where children can learn about food by playing will be developed and tested focused on kids and on their parents or caretakers. The platform will include different modules which will provide information regarding nutrition, sustainability, food waste, food science, sensory properties of food and technology specifically for children and adults. The use of chatbots for educational purposes is a recent topic that has been widely discussed and some examples support its development. There is a wide range of topics that can be addressed through chatbots so the tool will use the potential of chatbots so that children can learn the basics of healthy nutritional and sustainable habits from an early age, using a specific language according to their age range and understanding.

To ensure that the tool and the AI behind it are adapted to the stage of development of children from different countries and provide the appropriate content, parents, caregivers, and other stakeholders as well as children themselves were consulted in Finland, Poland, and Spain to co-create the best solution. Therefore, cocreation activities were carried out with children, parents, and stakeholders using validated questionnaires, qualitative methodologies of co-creation or open in-depth interviews in these UE countries.