Increasing rural Head Start children's consumption of middle-class meals.

The team worked with 16 rural Head Start preschoolers. Most kids would not touch unfamiliar foods like scrambled eggs or whole-wheat toast.

Teachers gave immediate praise and one candy or sugar-coated cereal piece for every bite of the target food. They kept track of how much each child ate during breakfast.

Praise plus a tiny sweet worked fast. The average child went from eating a large share of the nutritious meal to eating a large share.

By the end, every child ate at least some of each new food. Teachers needed only one 20-minute breakfast session per day.

Amore et al. (2011) later used the same idea—praise and bites of preferred food—with autistic children at home. Their study extends this 1974 classroom trick to a new population and setting.

Wetterneck et al. (2006) show the flip side: you can first train teachers with computerized lessons so they later deliver praise correctly. Together the papers form a chain—train the adult, then the adult trains the child.

Quiroz et al. (2023) move the goalposts from eating more to staying safe. They use behavioral skills training to teach kids to avoid allergens. Same lunchroom, different target.

You can copy this tomorrow. Pick one new food, cut it bite-size, and have a mini-cup of favorite cereal ready. Praise each bite right away, then hand over one piece of the cereal. In one week you can turn “yuck” into “more please” without battles or bribes bigger than a Tic-Tac.