Theses and Dissertations
Advisor
Ripple, Hailey
Committee Member
Smith, Hallie
Committee Member
Wildmon, Mark
Committee Member
Mattson, Stephanie
Date of Degree
8-7-2025
Original embargo terms
Immediate Worldwide Access
Document Type
Dissertation - Open Access
Major
School Psychology
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Education
Department
Department of Counseling, Higher Education Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations
Abstract
Research indicates that up to 80% of children with developmental disabilities have feeding problems. Feeding problems typically coexist with the presence of inappropriate mealtime behavior which includes behaviors such as aggression, throwing food or utensils, or turning head away from the presented bite. As a result, functional analysis procedures are commonly used to determine the function of inappropriate mealtime behavior to later inform effective function-based interventions. Traditional functional analysis procedures utilize the measurement of the rate of inappropriate mealtime behavior. Several limitations exist within traditional procedures for the assessment of inappropriate mealtime behavior which include demands across all test and control conditions, lengthy total durations, and variable opportunities to engage in inappropriate mealtime behavior. The current study evaluated an alternative measurement method of the latency to first inappropriate mealtime behavior. A total of three participants participated within the current study. The results provided preliminary evidence for the utility of latency based functional analyses in the assessment of inappropriate mealtime behavior.
Recommended Citation
Donald, Mallie N., "The evaluation of traditional and latency based functional analyses on the identification of the function of inappropriate mealtime behavior" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 6636.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/6636
