Utensil Fading to Increase Appropriate Utensil Acceptance

Area of Science:

• Pediatric feeding disorders
• Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) interventions

Background:

• Escape extinction is a validated treatment for improving food and drink acceptance in children with feeding difficulties.
• Nonremoval of utensils alone may be insufficient when children exhibit lip closure or teeth clenching.
• Physical guidance techniques can help but may necessitate alternative utensils.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate spoon-to-cup fading for an oral feeder with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
• To demonstrate the efficacy of finger-to-spoon fading.
• To provide a clinical example of syringe-to-cup fading for oral feeders with ASD.

Main Methods:

• Replication of spoon-to-cup fading in a child with ASD and oral feeding.
• Implementation and assessment of finger-to-spoon fading.
• Clinical case illustration of syringe-to-cup fading.

Main Results:

• Successful replication of spoon-to-cup fading in a child with ASD.
• Demonstrated effectiveness of finger-to-spoon fading.
• Provided a viable clinical example of syringe-to-cup fading for oral feeders with ASD.

Conclusions:

• Escape extinction, with adapted physical guidance techniques, is effective for children with ASD and feeding difficulties.
• Finger-to-spoon fading offers a novel approach for challenging feeding behaviors.
• These methods expand the therapeutic toolkit for pediatric feeding interventions.