Abstract
Previous research has concluded that presenting individuals with the opportunity to choose is a viable treatment for general escape-maintained behavior. Considering food refusal has been generally described as avoidant behavior, the present study aimed to evaluate the role of choice between non-preferred foods on the food consumption and problematic mealtime behavior of two children with food selectivity. Each participant was allowed to choose between four non-preferred foods in the choice condition and was not allowed to choose in the no-choice condition. Further, the role of choice as an antecedent manipulation in mediating the negative effects of escape extinction was evaluated when choice alone was demonstrated to be ineffective in increasing consumption. Results indicated that providing choices is an effective non-aversive intervention strategy in increasing the food consumption of individuals with food selectivity as well as advantageous in decreasing the negative side-effects of more intrusive consequence interventions when necessary to implement.