Date of Award
12-2015
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Applied Behavior Analysis: M.S.
Department
Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy
College
School of Health and Human Services
First Advisor
Kimberly Schulze
Second Advisor
Benjamin Witts
Third Advisor
Eric Rudrud
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
choice, antecedent intervention, food selectivity, autism
Abstract
Children with autism are frequently labeled as selective or “picky” eaters (Volkert & Vaz, 2010). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate antecedent choice as an intervention for decreasing selective eating in children diagnosed with autism. The results show that choice as an antecedent intervention was not effective at increasing consumption of non-preferred foods for three children diagnosed with autism. Acceptance of non-preferred food was 0% in baseline for all participants and remained at 0% during choice between two non-preferred foods. A differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) component was added to the choice phase, but acceptance of the non-preferred bite remained at 0%. Discussion on possibilities for treatment failure and alternative interventions is provided.
Recommended Citation
Lipe, Star L., "An Evaluation of the Efficacy of Antecedent Choice for Decreasing Food Selectivity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders" (2015). Culminating Projects in Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy. 11.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cpcf_etds/11
Comments/Acknowledgements
A special thank you to Lara Lanza for collecting interobserver agreement data during her role as Research Assistant; to Reaching Milestones Learning Center for allowing me to conduct research in their clinic and school; and, most importantly, to Kishan, Chase, Ethan, and their families for their much-appreciated participation.