Webinar #3 Food Selectivity. An Overview of Food Selectivity Treatment "Eating Without Tears"

Food selectivity is a common problem among children, including those with developmental disabilities. Many existing treatments are difficult to implement at home or in school and can increase problem behaviors. In this webinar, Dr. Gover will present a treatment protocol called " Eating without tears " that is useful for addressing food selectivity without using escape extinction, based on three main elements:

1. Indirect and direct measurement of food preferences to identify foods to use in treatment.

2. Assessing the sensitivity of problem mealtime behavior to environmental variables using interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA).

3. Integrating the analysis findings into a progressive treatment that provides choice opportunities and uses differential reinforcement of successive approximations to eating.

The approach prioritizes the child's autonomy and is applicable in everyday contexts. This approach has been shown to be effective in increasing the variety of foods consumed without provoking problem behaviors or eliciting negative emotional responses (Gover…