Rapid Eating in the Retarded

Abstract

Excessively rapid eating is a prevalent and serious, yet neglected problem with the severely and profoundly retarded. In the present study, four profoundly retarded rapid eaters were taught to spoon dip at normal rates by a nonaversive treatment package which included two major components: praise and food reinforcement for successively longer independent pauses between bites (up to five seconds), and steadily diminishing physical prompts for pausing when subjects attempted to eat rapidly. A multiple baseline experimental analysis documented that this treatment package was responsible for a reduction in rate from an average of 10.5 bites per 30 seconds during baseline to three bites per 30 seconds following treatment. This improvement persisted under a maintenance regime conducted by regular cottage staff in which one-to-one attention was gradually withdrawn, subjects were intermittently reinforced for pausing, and prompts for pausing were successfully eliminated.