ABSTRACT

Background Eating is an important aspect in childhood it is related to growth and development process, 25% of all children experience eating problems during the early years of life, but this number may rise to as high as 80% in children with developmental difficulties. “Selective” or “picky eating,” is defined as eating a limited variety of food and refusal to eat or taste new foods. This is a frequent problem in children with autism spectrum disorders. Many autistic children will have eating behavioural problem in their early years. This may lead to having problems in learning of the skills essential for daily activities and also limited researchers or available to manage oral motor and behaviour issue related to eating behaviour among autistic children. Hence an attempt has been made in this study to fine the solution for eating behaviours of autistic children. Objectives ? To evaluate the level of autism by using Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). ? To assess the abnormal eating behaviour of autistic children by using Brief Autism Mealtime Behaviour Inventory (BAMBI). ? To evaluate effectiveness of oral motor intervention in reducing abnormal eating behaviour of autistic children.Study design The study was done with quasi experimental design consisting of 15 participants in Experimental group and 15 participants in Control group. The sample included boys and girls who were diagnosed as mild to moderate level of autism with age group between 3-6 years. Convenient sampling technique was adopted. Independent variable is oral motor intervention, eating behaviour of autism is a dependent variable. Method The pre data were collected in both group at entry level with CARS and BAMBI scale. Post data were collected after the treatment with BAMBI scale. During the intervention phase the student engaged in oral motor intervention during the mealtime for 40 minutes timed by therapist. The control group receive only OT management and the experimental group receive OT management with oral motor intervention. The therapy was given for 3-month duration comprising 36 sessions, 12 sessions are given to each one month in total 3-month period. Results Paired‘t’ test has been calculated for the experimental group (BAMBI). The mean of pre-test was 88.33 and the post test was 54.93. The calculated ‘t’ value was 50.0286 with level of significance 0.05. It indicates there is a highly significant difference between pre and post-test values. Conclusion From this study, it is concluded that there is a significant improvement in eating behaviour of the children with autism through oral-motor intervention. Keywords: Autism, Eating behaviour, Occupational Therapy, Oral motor intervention
Publication date: 01/07/2025

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2025/July/MS_IJBPAS_2025_9154.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2025/14.7.9154