I just deleted other my post because I feel I didn’t word it right.
So if Abbie doesn’t know she’s full, that means she actually does get full, right? Full=no hungry pains. So why would she ask for more food if she’s not hungry? That obviously means something else triggers her to want to eat. Boredom? Depression? Or maybe because food is all she knows?
Routine.
Stick with me here.
As much as Asshat likes to claim that Abbie thrives on "chaos," she's just as behaviorally inflexible as any autistic person. One of the diagnostic requirements for ASD is a pattern of
restricted and/or repetitive behaviors - this not only includes stereotypy, or repetitive body motions (rocking, finger twisting, etc; the repetitive part) but also a dependence on things happening a certain way, often non-functionally; this is the restricted part.
In other words, routine.
Things have to happen a certain way. As an example, my older child will only say "excuse me" when they burp and "pardon me" when they, y'know, pass gas. These are
never interchangeable.
Ever. There's no functional difference between the two phrases; they both are equally polite reactions to air escaping the body. But, in my child's world view, the two are separate actions so they must have separate reactions. This is a nonfunctional routine for my child - it serves no purpose that a neurotypical person can see, but it's an extremely important restricted behavior, or routine, for my child. They have a compulsion to separate the two phrases the way that they do.
Now consider the common use of edible reinforcers in standard ABA therapy.
Sit in the chair for a count of 3 - good job, here's an M&M. Sit in the chair for a count of 3 - good job, here's an M&M. Sit in the chair for a count of 3 - good job, here's an M&M.
Hands waiting - good job, here's an M&M. Hands waiting - good job, here's an M&M.
Show me (the sign for) candy - good job, here's an M&M. Show me (the sign for) candy - good job, here's an M&M.
Now extrapolate that out into as much as 20-40 hours a week of ABA therapy, the incessant repetition of demand/reward, for years.
Then consider this demand/reward cycle of operant conditioning and how it might affect a person who is neurologically wired for a dependence on
things happening a certain way. Mix that with what we know of Abbie's parents.
She constantly seeks out snacks because it's a restricted behavior she's been conditioned into. She learned that performing what was asked of her results in a reward, and edible reinforcers (snacks, candy) have often been those rewards.
A nonverbal child with limited alternate communication (mostly modified sign, in Abbie's case) is so, so hard to know how to parent, and any parent who's been in the position of desperately wanting to communicate with their child in any way will understand that you'd do just about anything for that communication...
...even if that means rewarding every sign for candy with an M&M or equivalent.
Which, hopefully, any parent will quickly realize what that path will lead to, and will seek out other methods of reinforcement but that doesn't always happen. It does not appear to have happened in Abbie's case, and it's become a routine for her.
Asking for food constantly has effectively become a compulsion.
It's part of her routine. It's a nonfunctional, restricted behavior.
(And, yes, I know there's a long-running debate here in previous threads about IDD vs. ASD. Abbie is very clearly autistic as well as intellectually disabled; she hits all the bells for both.)
) or keep badgering her/asking the same question until she finally answers with what THEY want to do.
is a terrible human and a worse excuse for a mother. Why not talk about it truthfully? She's fat. That's a fact. The photoshopped pics from talented tattlers are intended to be funny. That's a fact too. 
