The ABA & OT Podcast #3: Sensory vs Behavior Beginnings - Addressing Failure to Thrive in Infants

What is the impact of sensory and behavior on early survival skills? Mandy and Aditi begin with a case study on Aditi's son Tristan who was diagnosed with failure to thrive. 

Mandy and Aditi also refer to a behavioral feeding program where differential reinforcement was used alongside other interventions to build adaptive eating repertoires. They also talk how a collaborative sensory and behavior approach can develop a hypothesis and the need to exercise caution when using profession-specific terms to avoid miscommunication.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

04:36 Shoutout to Margo B. Holm

 

05:45 Case study: Tristan's early feeding problems

 

12:57 Differentiating sensory and behavior: Interoception and Dead Man’s Test 

 

22:49 Early feeding behaviors and the sensory hypothesis behind it 

 

30:14 A behavioral feeding program for failure-to-thrive infants by Larson, Ayllon, and Barrett

 

42:12 Key takeaways

 

GLOSSARY

 

Interoception - The perception of sensations from inside the body and includes the perception of physical sensations related to internal organs like the heartbeat, respiration, and satiety.

 

Dead man test - If a dead person can do it, it's not behavior. If a dead person can't do it, it is behavior. Examples: laying still, falling down stairs, being noncompliant, sitting in a chair.

 

Unlearned (respondent) behavior - Behavior that a baby does not need prior learning to engage like survival mechanisms (feeding, suckling).

 

Differential reinforcement - Promotion and strengthening of behavior we want to see again and weakening what is reinforcing behavior that we want to reduce.

 

Punishment - Something that reduces a behavior.

 

RESOURCES

 

Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:

 

- Early Feeding - Failure to Thrive Glossary of Terms for ABA & OT

 

Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425

 

EXTERNAL RESOURCES

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270026479_Our_Mandate_for_the_New_Millennium_Evidence-Based_Practice - Our Mandate for the New Millenium by Margo B. Holm

 

https://nebula.wsimg.com/3783318e9b2543b7e5a133adb3b0bafb?AccessKeyId=1133D4CF8F18F0339400&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 - The Dead Man Test by Ogden Lindsley

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0005796787901136 - A Behavioral Feeding Program for Failure-to-Thrive Infants by Karen L. Larson, Teodoro Ayllon, Drue H. Barrett

 

QUOTES

 

08:38 "My OT brain started going okay, I have ruled out all medical issues, so what's next? Then I was like there's got to be a sensory facet to this. This is when I started thinking about interoception."

 

21:44 "Since receiving and reacting to sensory responses, whether it's intrinsic or extrinsic, a dead man cannot do, therefore all sensory responses would actually be considered a behavior."

 

34:41 "They cautioned that the use of music alone was not recommended and that the adaptive eating was consequated by food and social attention primarily and while music was to mask the beginning of the feeding cycle, that it wasn't the primary reinforcer."

 

41:04 "We use terms that are very specific and defined but they also often have a common meaning as well such as another term that behavioral analysts use is punishment which often has a really negative connotation."

 

42:14 "The key takeaway, it's really about coming up with a sensory behavioral approach to develop a hypothesis. In this case with the baby, an infant who is in failure to thrive."