Treatment of food selectivity: An evaluation of video modeling of contingencies
Video modeling can spark a few new bites, but adding extinction and live praise works better.
01Research in Context
What this study did
O'Connor et al. (2020) tested whether kids would eat new foods after watching a short video. The video showed another child taking a bite and then getting praise and a small toy.
Four children with feeding disorders watched the clip before lunch. The team then gave real praise and toys at the table if the child copied the bite. They tracked how many new foods each child ate across several weeks.
What they found
Two kids ate three new foods after the video plus real rewards. One child only accepted one new food. The last child ate none.
Success also changed by food type. Soft fruits gained bites; hard vegetables still got rejected. The authors call the outcome 'mixed'—some wins, many misses.
How this fits with other research
Kirkwood et al. (2021) ran a similar lunch-table study but added extinction—no escape, no attention for refusal. All four of their kids ate new foods. Their larger effect suggests video alone is weaker than video plus extinction.
ALee et al. (2022) skipped video completely. They gave real-time praise only and still cut food selectivity in non-verbal autistic pupils. This extends O'Connor's work by showing live reinforcement can work without any screen.
Chen et al. (2022) kept the reinforcement but played with timing—bite-by-bite versus saved-up rewards. Every schedule helped, hinting that steady immediate praise may beat the single video prime used by O'Connor.
Why it matters
If you like using tablets in treatment, keep the clip short and always pair it with real-time praise and escape extinction. Check each food separately—soft textures may progress faster. If the child still refuses, drop the video and go straight to live differential reinforcement with extinction; later studies show stronger gains.
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Join Free →Show a 30-second peer-eating clip, then immediately deliver praise and a token for every accepted bite; if refusal stays high, remove the video and use live DR plus escape extinction instead.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Many children with disabilities have feeding problems including, but not limited to, food selectivity and/or food refusal. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of video modeling of contingencies alone and combined with direct exposure to the contingencies in the treatment of food selectivity. Treatment procedures included sequentially introducing videos in which models consumed nonpreferred foods or were exposed to differential reinforcement or differential reinforcement plus escape extinction. In addition, during feeding sessions, participants were exposed to differential reinforcement. Results indicated that video modeling of differential reinforcement plus direct exposure to differential reinforcement may be effective at increasing consumption of some nonpreferred foods, but the results were not replicated across all foods. For one participant, consumption of one food increased with video modeling alone.
Behavioral Interventions, 2020 · doi:10.1002/bin.1693