Inspiring Flexible Eating in Children with Food Selectivity belongs in serious BCBA study because it shapes whether behavior-analytic decisions stay useful once they leave a clean training example and enter clinic sessions and day-to-day service delivery. In Inspiring Flexible Eating in Children with Food Selectivity, for this course, the practical stakes show up in safe, humane intervention that respects health variables and daily-life feasibility, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via BABAT
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Food selectivity is a common and persistent challenge among children with and without developmental disabilities. Despite its prevalence, there remains a significant gap in clinical resources and effective, accessible interventions. There is a particular need for strategies that promote flexible eating through positive reinforcement and can be implemented in real-world settings. To help address this gap, Gover and colleagues (2022) introduced an assessment and intervention process designed for young children with autism, which utilized differential reinforcement of gradual approximations toward consuming novel and nonpreferred foods. A central feature of this approach is its emphasis on autonomy, offering children meaningful choice-making opportunities, including the option to opt in or out of treatment phases, thereby supporting assent and engagement throughout the therapeutic process. In this presentation, I will review the original implementation of this intervention, share extensions to older individuals, and discuss practical considerations for applying the process in schools and home environments. Additionally, I will explore how trauma-informed care strategies can be integrated to enhance the safety and responsiveness of the approach. Implications for practitioners in applied settings and directions for future research will also be discussed.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
| COA | 1 | — |
Dr. Holly Gover is a doctoral-level, licensed, and board-certified behavior analyst with over a decade of experience supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. She earned her Ph.D. in Behavior Analysis from Western New England University under the mentorship of Dr. Greg Hanley, serving as a lead clinician and researcher at the Life Skills Clinic. Dr. Gover’s research and published work focus on practical functional assessment (PFA) and skill-based treatment (SBT), the assessment and treatment of food selectivity, trauma-informed approaches to behavioral care, and assent-based models of learning. She is dedicated to providing effective, compassionate solutions for practitioners and families while prioritizing agency and autonomy within the therapeutic process. Dr. Gover currently serves as Lead Consultant and Director of Client Relations at FTF Behavioral Consulting.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
280 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
You earn CEUs from a dozen different places. Upload any certificate — from here, your employer, conferences, wherever — and always know exactly where you stand. Learning, Ethics, Supervision, all handled.
No credit card required. Cancel anytime.
All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.