Effect of Breakfast Consumption on Verbal Fluency and Verbal Working Memory Performance in Seven-Year-Old Children

Studies have indicated that failure to eat breakfast did not affect children’s performance in general cognitive tests; however, skipping breakfast might have effects on the specific aspects of cognition such as memory. Hypothetically, language as a higher cognitive function may be influenced by breakfast consumption routines.

This study aimed to compare students’ verbal fluency and working memory according to their breakfast routines.

We selected 60 seven-year-old children from three primary schools in the central regions of Tehran in 2017. Their parents were invited to a structured interview to fill out questionnaires consisting of information related to the child, parent, and breakfast routines. Based on the family's breakfast habits, two groups were identified: Group 1 with a full, regular breakfast routine and Group 2 with no breakfast or incomplete breakfast routine. An experienced speech therapist administered the verbal fluency task (phonemic and semantic fluency) and verbal working memory task (forward and backward digit numbers) for each student.

The mean scores of students with a full breakfast routine on verbal fluency tasks were at least three units more than those of students without breakfast. These differences were all significant (P = 0.001). In working memory tasks, students with a full breakfast routine had seven digits and one digit in their responses more than students without breakfast in forward and backward digit tasks, in sequence. These differences were significant (P = 0.001).

The findings of the present study provide information on the positive effects of a regular breakfast routine on the specific cognitive functions related to language processing.