This presentation is for caregivers, parents, and therapists that love children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and are desperately seeking evidence-based interventions that will help increase healthier food intake. It is a common phenomenon that children diagnosed with autism present with a specific diet that results in a lack of healthier foods. Encouraging a child with autism to explore a variety of foods can cause an aversive learned behavior if not done correctly. This causes fear, anxiety and simply food refusal for both the child and adult. It is both my pleasure and honor to walk you through effective and evidence based strategies to increase food intake for children with autism in return will provide a positive, consistent and long term healthier change for your child.

The participants will be able to:

1. Identify foods that increase focus and attention and how to present them to a child
2. Demonstrate the ability to follow the child’s lead versus force-feeding
3. Identify behaviors that indicate preferred food as well as unwanted foods
4. Identify long term strategies that will improve an overall healthier diet