Evaluating the efficacy of pictorial preference assessments with children who engage in food selectivity
Use picture cards plus a tiny taste to find preferred foods for selective eaters—results match the full edible test without the meltdowns.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with four kids who refused most foods. Each child had a feeding disorder.
They tested three ways to find out what foods the kids liked. First, they showed pictures of foods. Second, they showed pictures and let kids taste a tiny bite. Third, they used the old way—putting real foods in front of the kids.
They compared the results to see which method picked the same foods as the gold-standard edible test.
What they found
Pictures plus a quick taste matched the full edible test a large share of the time.
Pictures alone worked only a large share of the time. The brief taste made the difference.
No child cried or gagged during the picture-plus-taste method.
How this fits with other research
Kang et al. (2013) reviewed 14 studies and said some preference tests work better than others. Villafaña's data now adds food-selective kids to that list.
Zonneveld et al. (2019) used a different test with healthy preschoolers to see if quality or speed drove choices. Both studies show you can tweak assessments for the population—pictures for selective eaters, competing tasks for typical kids.
Conine et al. (2019) found kids with autism now pick leisure items more than old data showed. Villafaña's work keeps edibles in the game for feeding cases by making the test safer.
Kodak et al. (2009) warned that MSW and free-operant tests sometimes disagree. Villafaña's picture-plus-taste method gives a new option that lines up with edible tests without the risks.
Why it matters
Next time you assess a food-refusing child, skip the full edible array. Show pictures first, then offer a pea-sized bite of the top picks. You get the same answers with less stress and no bowls of wasted food.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractPreference assessments are used in practice with individuals who engage in food refusal and selectivity to identify foods that a child will readily consume before assessment and treatment. Traditional edible preference assessments may be challenging for children who engage in food refusal or selectivity as the child may not consume foods, but rather engage in inappropriate mealtime behavior simply due to the presence of food. Alternative modality preference assessments, such as pictorial, may offer benefits compared to traditional preference assessment formats (e.g., stimulus preference assessment and paired‐stimulus preference assessment). The use of pictures may reduce any evocative effects of the presence of food and result in choice‐making without inappropriate mealtime behavior. Experiment 1 assessed the correspondence between the hierarchies yielded from pictorial preference assessments (with and without access) to a standard edible preference assessment. Experiment 2 evaluated the accuracy of each preference assessment by presenting foods identified as preferred and non‐preferred to determine if the child would accept them. Results suggested that pictorial preference assessments with access corresponded the most with the traditional edible preference assessment. Also, for one individual, the traditional preference assessment did not accurately identify foods that the participant would consume, while the pictorial preference assessment without access yielded a hierarchy.
Behavioral Interventions, 2023 · doi:10.1002/bin.1912