In this review the researcher’s main aim was to study how negative reinforcement can be used in the treatment of feeding disorder and the participant was an 8-year-old male diagnosed with cerebral palsy (Voulgarakis & Forte, 2015). The subject had challenging mealtime behavior which was maintained by escape and therefore negative reinforcement protocol was enacted that allowed him to escape meals but also had to accept a number of pre-determined bites.
The method used to evaluate the participant was conducted for 15 sessions, all of which the parents of the participant were present and foods that the patient disliked were used as a baseline session of intervention phases and in order for the participant to meet the criterion level there were a specific number of bites that were required before the half-hour mark. If he ingested the specified amount within the required period he was allowed to be done with the meal and be on his way. A certified nutritionist helped design a meal plan that included proteins from poultry, fish or red meat and this helped in the caloric consumption of the participant since it led to an increase in the number of bites accepted by the participant. Additionally, food presented to the participant was of similar texture in order to control for other variables
The findings indicated that the escape contingency was an effective reinforcer to food acceptance where the participant in the first intervention had started with 7 bites, but by the final criterion, which was set to 12 bites, he was able to exceed the target (Voulgarakis & Forte, 2015). This study highly contributes to the literature involving the treatment of feeding problems through negative reinforcement and escape-maintained mealtime behavior and was relatively easy to implement. Overall, it demonstrates that these negative interventions are applicable to persons with complex needs such as those with cerebral palsy and this study will greatly add to the body of knowledge on negative reinforcement techniques used to treat pediatric feeding issues.
Reference
Voulgarakis, H., & Forte, S. (2015). Escape extinction and negative reinforcement in the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders: A single case analysis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8(2), 212–214. Web.