TABLE 4.

Summary of directions for future research

Conceptual considerations	Research design	Measurement and assessment	Interventions
Research focussing on food neophobia, including treatment of food neophobia as a distinct eating outcome	Research including control and/or comparison groups	Research adopting direct, observational assessments of eating behaviours	Research focussing on developing sensory‐based eating and feeding interventions for non‐clinical eating outcomes
Research focussing on disordered eating outcomes (restrict, binge, purge) in clinically diagnosed autism samples	Research adopting a longitudinal design, measuring the relationship across and/or development	Research adopting physiological or neurological assessments of sensory processing	Research focussing on developing sensory‐based eating and feeding interventions for disordered eating outcomes
Research focussing on taste and smell sensitivities as distinct sensory modalities	Research including more diverse and representative samples
Research focussing on different sensory patterns, particularly hypersensitivities, hyposensitivities and sensory seeking	Research including more autistic adolescents and, in particular, autistic adults
Research focussing on the possible role of emotion in the relationship between sensory processing and eating behaviours, particularly with regards to the development of disordered eating