Building and maintaining self feeding skills in a retarded child

Through the use of operant conditioning techniques, an echolalic child with severe behavior problems was taught to accept an increasing variety and texture of foods while concurrently developing appropriate self feeding skills. For 3 yr she had existed on a diet consisting mainly of cinnamon toast, bacon, milk, and eggnog. Fifteen working days were required to teach her to self feed and accept nutritionally balanced meals. Progress in other self help areas accompanied the acquisition of self feeding skills, which were still present 5 mth after termination of treatment. (13 references).