| Description |
Eating disorders, obesity, diabetes, and chronic gastrointestinal inflammation frequently form unhealthy partnerships at mealtime with the sensory and behavioral challenges faced by children with autism. Sensory processing problems heighten aversions and obsessions to specific smells, textures, and tastes, resulting in extremely selective eating, nutritional deficiencies, and food addictions that aggravate gastrointestinal disorders common on the autism spectrum. Parents and guardians often exacerbate the problem by reacting to behavioral challenges at the table in ways that actually reinforce poor eating habits, at best, or, in worse cases, result in routinely traumatic experiences.
Discover highly effective, step-by-step strategies for integrating new and nourishing foods, expanding food selection, preventing GI distress, and transitioning the dinner table from battleground to common ground. This course will outline typical development of eating skills, medically recognized nutritional needs of the growing child, and sensory-based approaches to mealtime behavioral issues. Explore a variety of techniques that encourage children to participate happily in their family or school mealtimes, and learn to develop successful mealtime programs that address a child’s need for active play, self-care, compassionate caregivers, and the use of imagination.
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