Ben Sarcia is a clinician at Verbal Beginnings and leads our Healthy Beginnings feeding therapy program. He works closely with children and families who face challenges with selective eating. Ben is also working on his doctoral dissertation, which focuses on making the first steps of feeding therapy less stressful and more supportive for children. In this blog, Ben shares what inspired his research, how feeding therapy can help children try new foods through small steps, and what families can expect from a study designed to make mealtime better for children with autism and feeding challenges.
Tell us about your dissertation – what’s it about?
For children who have food selectivity challenges, the first few days of feeding therapy are often the hardest. Many children have learned to say “no” or walk away when they see a new food. When we start working on new foods, children often resist. We know we can’t just accept that the child will eat only certain foods. Selective eating can lead to malnutrition, the need for a feeding tube, and research shows that it usually doesn’t go away on its own.
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is not about forcing a child to eat. There are many strategies to slowly introduce new foods and help children get used to different tastes and textures. Our study focuses on “chaining” mealtime behaviors. For example, we might first ask a child to touch a spoon, then touch the food with their finger, and then smell it before asking them to eat it. Each chain is customized for the child after an initial assessment. The child earns positive attention for completing each step, which helps make eating new foods less scary.
So, how will the research portion of it work?
Children in the study will have daily meal sessions in our clinic. The therapy is very similar to what we usually do, but with the behavior chain added. All participants are anonymous, meaning we do not include names or personal information when collecting data.
What are you hoping to learn or gain from the findings?
From our first study, we learned that parents liked the chain of mealtime behaviors. This was true even if the chain didn’t help their child eat new foods. One parent, whose child did respond well, said they wanted to use the chain at home because it worked so well. Another parent, whose child didn’t respond as well, still appreciated that the chain tried to keep mealtimes calmer. In this upcoming study, we will compare the chain to the usual ABA treatment to see if it makes a real difference.
What happens after the research is completed?
After the study, which usually lasts about a week, the caregiver meets with me to review the child’s results and discuss how to continue progress at home.
I also hope to publish the results in a scholarly journal. If the chain works and helps children participate more willingly in feeding therapy or have fewer tantrums, other professionals need to know about it.
Is the research specifically focused on one age group?
This study is for children who have experienced food selectivity challenges for at least three months and have a diagnosis of autism. Children must be between 3 and 12 years old. We want to see if age and learning history affect how the chain works. Many children who come to us eat only one or two food groups, fewer than 10 foods, or refuse foods based on brand, color, or texture.
Thanks Ben! Learn more about Healthy Beginnings here and stay tuned as Ben finishes his research!
