Effectiveness of a Child's Fable on the Cognition of Preschools When Used to Address Childhood Obesity

•An intervention of reading a child's fable with health concepts (nutrition and exercise) was demonstrated to show a significant change in changing preschoolers knowledge of health concepts when measured by pre- and post-test measurement tools.•A cost-effective, easy to administer teaching tool can be implemented in a school setting to effective preschoolers knowledge of health concepts.•The intervention of reading a child's fable with health concepts should be expanded to additional health concepts/health prevention topics.•The intervention of reading a child's fable with health concepts should be explored in additional settings (i.e., outpatient clinics, primary care) and with additional childhood age ranges.

The study investigated the effectiveness of a child's fable on the cognition of preschoolers when used to address childhood obesity. A single group, pretest/posttest design was used with 57 preschool children. Analysis of variance compared pre-existing differences between the four classes with respect to pre-test scores. A repeated measures t-test analyzed changes in scores as a result of the intervention. Following the fable intervention, students showed a significant difference (0.5) between their pre- and post-test scores, indicating this method to an effective learning strategy in this setting and age population.