Simultaneous presentation and differential reinforcement to increase consumption

Abstract

Many autistic children display feeding difficulties and consume a limited food variety. These feeding difficulties could be conceptualized as change-resistant behavior because children often exhibit rigid mealtime routines, avoid novel foods, and only consume foods according to specific types, textures, or under specific mealtime conditions. Currently, behavior-analytic treatments for pediatric feeding disorders have the most empirical support and many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of extinction-based treatments. However, there is less research on alternative treatments for increasing consumption of novel or non-preferred foods among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the current study, we evaluated simultaneous presentation and differential reinforcement to increase consumption of novel, target foods for two participants with ASD and change-resistant feeding behavior.