Incorporating Trauma-Informed Care Strategies Into the Assessment of and Intervention for Food Selectivity: A Pilot Investigation

Abstract

Autistic children are at an increased risk for both (a) exhibiting problematic eating behaviors such as food selectivity and (b) experiencing potentially traumatic events and correlated posttraumatic stress symptoms. Not only could a history of trauma directly influence the development of food selectivity but may also negatively impact the efficacy and social validity of existing evidence-based interventions. There is currently very little published research on interventions for food selectivity that incorporate commitments and strategies of trauma-informed care. In the current study, we sought to apply a trauma-informed approach to address the food selectivity of an autistic adolescent. Via a combination of single-subject experimental designs, we demonstrated that an intervention package inclusive of multiple trauma-informed care strategies directly contributed to increases in consumption of nonpreferred foods. We describe multiple ways in which we recruited and obtained social validation from the adolescent during his participation. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed.