Purpose : The purpose of this study provided an overview of the general status and recent intervention approaches in overseas research related to feeding problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This review aims to explore interventions for feeding problems in order to provide higher quality follow-up research directions and implications, particularly focusing on providing recommendations for future research in the context of domestic studies.
Methods : Analyzing studies published in international journals from 2017 to 2023. This review involved six selected articles, through Embase, Pubmed, RISS, KISS database search engine. A literature analysis that includes inclusion and exclusion criteria, six selected articles were examined. The literature analysis categorized the general status of the research and intervention approaches and treatment components into intervention, treatment settings and therapists, and dependent variables, respectively.
Results : Among feeding intervention approaches, parent education interventions based on behavioral therapy had the highest proportion, followed by multidisciplinary interventions. To maintain the effectiveness of interventions over the long term and to generalize them to the home environment, parent education that utilizes parents as mediators is considered a crucial factor. The most commonly observed effects as dependent variables were changes in the consumption of disliked foods, health foods and alterations in feeding behavior.
Conclusion : This study introduces various intervention approaches for addressing feeding problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), focusing on the positive effects demonstrated by active intervention research in abroad. Furthermore, it underscores the need for additional research in Korea to validate the efficacy of these feeding intervention methods. Lastly, the study outlines future research directions aimed at developing feeding programs to support children with ASD and their families coping with feeding issues.