Table 3.

Resident Nonverbal Behaviors

Behaviors	n	%
Resident Positive/Neutral Behaviors	194	20.9
Using hands to eat or taking over attempts to eat/drink	48	24.7
Leaning forward	47	24.2
Affirmative nodding	70	36.1
Wiping away oral spillage or drool	22	11.3
Indicating end of meal	7	3.6
Resident Challenging Behaviors
A. Chewing/swallowing difficulties	311	33.5
Leaving mouth open allowing food to fall out (passive)	6	1.9
Prolonged/continuous chewing/sipping	265	85.2
Does not chew/swallow	13	4.2
Coughing, choking, or gaging on food	27	8.7
B. Functional impairments	92	9.9
Difficulty using utensil properly	29	31.5
Difficulty transporting food to mouth	15	16.3
Contracture/limited range of motion	2	2.2
Taking empty utensil/container to mouth	11	12.0
Spillage	23	25.0
Drooling	12	13.0
C. Resistive behaviors	332	35.7
Does not open mouth (when mouth is empty)	43	13.0
Biting the utensil (when food is offered)	2	0.6
Turning head away/tilting head backwards	47	14.2
Leaning backwards	19	5.7
Pushing away help/food	11	3.3
Spitting out food	3	0.9
Non-affirmative nodding	55	16.6
Disengaged/distracted from meal	124	37.3
Playing with food/utensil	15	4.5
Taking food from others	8	2.4
Attempting to eat inedible object	0	0.0
Attempting to/leaves the table	5	1.5

Note. Total number of resident nonverbal behaviors = 929.