Loading...
Mealtime Behaviors Associated with Consumption of Unfamiliar Foods by Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Stough, Cathleen
Stough, Cathleen
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show greater food refusal than their typically developing peers. The current study examined parent and child mealtime behaviors associated with consumption of unfamiliar foods by children with ASD. Methods: Families of 38 children aged 2 through 8 years old and diagnosed with ASD videotaped a typical home mealtime during which parents presented the child with an unfamiliar food and mealtime behaviors were subsequently coded through an observational coding system. Results: Only sips of drink at the meal related to whether children took a bite of the unfamiliar food (z = - 2.42, p = .02). However, parent direct commands (z = 2.01, p = .04) and parents feeding the child (z = 6.69, p Conclusions: Frequency of most mealtime behaviors across the course of the meal did not differentiate between children who took a bite of the unfamiliar food and those who did not. Clinical interventions for food selectivity in children with ASD should provide parents education on effective mealtime parenting strategies (e.g., commands and feeds) and decreasing inappropriate child mealtime behaviors (e.g., not playing at the table, not being away from the meal).
Description
Date
2015-05-31
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Kansas
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Clinical psychology, Psychology, Nutrition, autism spectrum disorder, food selectivity, mealtime behaviors