Further Manipulations in Response Effort or Magnitude of an Aversive Consequence to Increase Self-Feeding in Children with Feeding Disorders.

Although some children with feeding disorders may have the necessary skills to feed themselves, they may lack motivation to self-feed solids and liquids. Rivas, Piazza, Roane, Volkert, Stewart, Kadey, and Groff (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47, 1-14, 2014) and Vaz, Volkert, and Piazza (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 915-920, 2011) successfully increased self-feeding for children who lacked motivation to self-feed by manipulating either the quantity or the quantity and quality of bites that the therapist fed the child if he or she did not self-feed. In the current investigation, we present three case examples to illustrate some challenges we faced when using these procedures outlined in the aforementioned studies and how we addressed these challenges.