Ambience plays a key role in feeding behaviors. The literature has been scarce and conflicting on the effects of environmental multisensory modalities on children to increase oral intake. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effects of music and television stimuli on typical school aged children when eating. Using an alternating treatment design, the participants engaged in simultaneously eating Jell-O™ chocolate pudding while either watching a pre-selected video (The Muppet Show, Punky Brewster) or music stimulus (Linus and Lucy [Remastered]). Music and television demonstrated a PND of 100% with a significant change in oral intake from baseline to intervention. However, the music stimulus demonstrated greater increase in oral intake. Despite a small number of participants, the results of this study in conjunction with the literature support the need for further investigations to determine if the manipulation of ambient factors may be used therapeutically to enhance feeding outcomes in children with dysphagia.
