Language, communication, and cognition: A study of slum-dwelling women in a nutrition education programme in India
type: CreativeWork
description: Whilst the research on nutrition education is consistently growing, it has typically focused on outcomes of nutritional status and nutrition knowledge. The demand for language and cognitive skills, barriers they may present, and the potential beneficial effects on these skills, specifically within individuals with low literacy skills, have been unexplored. This interdisciplinary thesis addresses these gaps by focusing on the cognitive flexibility and oral communication skills of Bengali-speaking mothers living in the Chetla slum in Kolkata, India, in collaboration with the NNEdPro Mobile Teaching Kitchen (MTK) project. This thesis presents a scoping review of the existing evidence, before outlining the development and adaptation of a task battery, comprising a demographic and language background questionnaire and tasks of literacy, narrative production, verbal fluency, and executive functions. To understand participants’ perceptions of their own learning and experience of nutrition education, a set of qualitative questions were also developed. The study was delivered at pre- and post-intervention alongside the MTK See One, Do One, Teach One (SODOTO) intervention in March 2022. Results I presents a profile of participants’ demographic and language background, as well as their anthropometric results. Comparative analysis at pre- and post-intervention reveals non- significant increases on most task measures. The consistency of task stimuli are also assessed, providing multiple discussion points for future research. Results II explores the relationships between task measures, finding a significant association between n-back and category naming performance, congruent with existing knowledge on verbal fluency and executive function components. Analysis of demographic, SES, and language context factors on task performance reveal a significant role of education on both literacy and picture sequencing performance, as well as maternal education on literacy and category naming…
abstract: Whilst the research on nutrition education is consistently growing, it has typically focused on outcomes of nutritional status and nutrition knowledge. The demand for language and cognitive skills, barriers they may present, and the potential beneficial effects on these skills, specifically within individuals with low literacy skills, have been unexplored. This interdisciplinary thesis addresses these gaps by focusing on the cognitive flexibility and oral communication skills of Bengali-speaking mothers living in the Chetla slum in Kolkata, India, in collaboration with the NNEdPro Mobile Teaching Kitchen (MTK) project. This thesis presents a scoping review of the existing evidence, before outlining the development and adaptation of a task battery, comprising a demographic and language background questionnaire and tasks of literacy, narrative production, verbal fluency, and executive functions. To understand participants’ perceptions of their own learning and experience of nutrition education, a set of qualitative questions were also developed. The study was delivered at pre- and post-intervention alongside the MTK See One, Do One, Teach One (SODOTO) intervention in March 2022. Results I presents a profile of participants’ demographic and language background, as well as their anthropometric results. Comparative analysis at pre- and post-intervention reveals non- significant increases on most task measures. The consistency of task stimuli are also assessed, providing multiple discussion points for future research. Results II explores the relationships between task measures, finding a significant association between n-back and category naming performance, congruent with existing knowledge on verbal fluency and executive function components. Analysis of demographic, SES, and language context factors on task performance reveal a significant role of education on both literacy and picture sequencing performance, as well as maternal education on literacy and category naming…
author: Webber, Jodie
language: eng
keywords: communication, literacy, verbal fluency, executive functions, nutrition education, Bengali, India, knowledge transfer, learning
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/04463252-318d-474b-b7eb-782f7c93ffc7/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2024-10-03
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:54Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.115637