The role of sensory diet in minimalization of food selectivity in children with autism spectrum - case study

Habik-Tatarowska Natalia. The role of sensory diet in minimalization of food  selectivity in children with autism spectrum - case study. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(4):409-415. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2642833

http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/6835

The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 1223 (26/01/2017).

1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7

© The Authors 2019;

This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland

Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike.

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Received: 28.03.2019. Revised: 30.03.2019. Accepted: 17.04.2019.

The role of sensory diet in minimalization of food  selectivity in children with autism spectrum - case study

Natalia Habik-Tatarowska¹

1. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland

Corresponding author: habiknatalia@gmail.com

Abstract

In the group of disorders in children with autism spectrum observed food selectivity. The article presents a case study of a therapeutic program applied to a child with food selectivity.

A 5-year-old boy with a diagnosed autism spectrum was selected for the observation. The criterion for including the child in the observation was the diagnosed food selectivity and hypersensitivity of the touch system. For this purpose, a detailed interview with parents and medical consultations were made during which food selectivity due to metabolic disorders was excluded. The boy participated in a six-month therapy conducted once a week by the Sensory Integration method. The research was conducted from July to December 2018.

The child was observed to minimize the degree of hypersensitivity of the tactile system after a period of 3 months of the sensory diet. After 6 months of treatment, a significant progress was observed in the widening of the boy's nutritional repertoire. Currently, the child eats most of the food without diversifying the food structure.

In the child's case study analyzed, the effectiveness of Sensory Integration therapy applied in food selectivity was confirmed. The effectiveness of stimulation of Sensory Integration Therapy is an opportunity to improve the minimization of food choices in children with the autism spectrum.

Key words: selectivity food, sensory diet, autism, Sensory Integration