Ben Sarcia is a Therapist based in the USA. My areas of speciality include Intellectual Disability. This profile is currently unclaimed; please validate the details are current when communicating with the mental health professional.
Therapist Overview
For many parents, mealtime can be frustrating, especially if challenging behavior goes beyond ‘typical pickiness.’ As the director of Healthy Beginnings, a behavioral feeding therapy program, I have helped children that have displayed a variety of challenging mealtimes behaviors. This includes selectivity by food, color, brand, and texture, as well as children who may vomit at the sight of a new food, or perhaps refuse to feed themselves with utensils. Feeding tube dependency is another area in which I have taught children how to eat and drink who perhaps have had minimal or no experience with oral feeding. Many children who engage in challenging behavior at mealtime require a behavioral approach in order to develop appropriate mealtime behaviors. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an evidenced-based practice, meaning that strategies employed in therapy are supported by peer-reviewed research and proven to be effective. Our program success rate is high, with 96% goal achievement among a sample of 26 children, including children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, that had completed the intensive therapy program. Therefore, we hope to meet you and your child in order to help turn mealtime into a positive experience for the whole family.