1. A study to assess the effect of parent-child-programme on knowledge regarding balanced diet among school children in selected schools, at Kulasekharam, Kanyakumari District

School going period is considered a nutritionally critical period of life. The importance of nutrition in school-age children has been emphasizing because malnutrition during these can decrease not only in physical and mental development but also the learning ability of the children. In a school environment playing a board game has many benefits for children of all age groups, helping to develop their visual alertness increase their attention span, assisting with memory strategies and reasoning. The study was a quasi-experimental study with a quantitative approach. The study was conducted in 2 government schools ( Koodathooki & Kalladimamoodu ) at Kulasekharam. Data collection period was one month. the population was school-age children between the ages group of 9-11 years. Purposive sampling technique was used, sample size was 40. The tools used for data collection were demographic variables and structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 20 items regarding a balanced diet. The findings revealed that the pretest means a score of the school-age children was 6.20. The post-test means the score of school-age children was 16.32. It showed that before implementing the snake and ladder game, the school-age children had a poor level of knowledge regarding a balanced diet. The ‘t’ value was 18.08, df =79,table value = 3.90 and P < 0.0001, so it is highly significant. The pretest means score of parents of school-age children was 5.46. The post-test mean score of parents of school-age children was 16.46. It showed that before implementing the intervention, the parents of school-age children had a poor level of knowledge regarding a balanced diet. The t value was 9.04, df = 29 and table value = 4.25 and P<0.0001, so it is highly significant. There is no statistically significant association between pretest level of knowledge with the selected demographic variables.