Previous research has demonstrated that escape extinction (EE) is a necessary component of treatment for pediatric feeding disorders in most cases (e.g., Ahearn, Kerwin, Eicher, Shantz, & Swearingin, 1996; Patel, Piazza, Martinez, Volkert, & Santana, 2001; Reed, Piazza, Patel, Layer, Bachmeyer, Bethke, & Gutshall, 2004). Our clinical experience is that EE is not always effective when used alone, which necessitates the use of alternative and/or additional procedures. Although researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of treatment procedures individually, the overall effectiveness of these procedures has not been evaluated on a large scale. In the present paper, we examined 135 data sets from children referred for treatment of a pediatric feeding disorder. We analyzed how often EE-based procedures were effective inincreasing acceptance and mouth clean (a product measure of swallowing) and decreasing inappropriate mealtime behavior. We also analyzed how often it was necessary to use alternative and/or additional procedures when EE was not effective. Weidentified the procedures that were used and evaluated their effectiveness in treating the target behaviors noted above. With Valerie M. Volkert, Rebecca Groff, and Suzanne Milnes
Review Cathleen Piazza’s biographical statement.