TITLE:
The Effects of a Drums Alive Kids® Beats Intervention vis a vis Behavior on Children with Developmental Delays
AUTHORS:
Carrie Ekins, Peter R. Wright, Marianne Liebich, Jacqueline Wright, Henry Schulz, Dean Owens
KEYWORDS:
Behavior, Multidisciplinary, Music, Movement, Drumming, Motivation, Impulse Control, Coordination, Concentration, Implementation of Tasks, Creativity, Plasticity
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.12 No.1,
February
17,
2022
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to determine if the Drums Alive Kids Beats
intervention could improve behavior in children with developmental delays (DD).
The original pilot study that this study on behavior is linked to is titled, “The
Effects of a Drums Alive Kids Beats Intervention on the Physical
Performance and Motor Skills of Children with Developmental Delays,” which was
published in the December edition of the Open Journal of Pediatrics (OJPED,
Vol.11 No.4 2021). During the facilitation of said intervention on physical and
motor skills, the facilitators noticed unanticipated improvements in behavior,
both individually and as a community through better awareness, self-control,
self-efficacy, social interaction, and positive energy. Therefore, while
maintaining the integrity of the MOT 4 - 6 testing protocols and Drums Alive intervention, a
parallel study was conducted to objectively measure six behavioral domains,
namely, motivation, impulse control, coordination, concentration,
implementation of tasks, and creativity using a self-designed measurement tool
with three elements for each domain that was approved by Dr. Heiner Lagenkamp, Department of Sports and Physical
Activities, Teaching and Research, Ruhr University, Germany. The 20
participants were German students between 5.10 and 10.2 years of age with no
inclusion or exclusion characteristics who were divided into two intervention
groups, IG Kindergarten (IG Kinder) and IG Elementary (IG Elem), with varied
DD, i.e., transgressive behavior,
ADHD, ADD, autism, anger management, visual acuity, self-control, and
self-esteem. During the MOT 4 - 6 study
and Drums Alive Kids Beats intervention, the facilitators monitored and
assessed each participant for pre- and post-performance vis a vis behavior
concurrently with physical and motoric skills. As the original study provided
statistically significant improvements of between 14% - 24% in
physical and motor skill performance with regards to overall scoring and 7
subdivisions of tasks, the results of this parallel study on behavior, with its
6 domains and 18 elements of between 24% - 28%, were even more compelling. The
evidence indicated that the Drums Alive Kids Beats intervention with its
multidisciplinary approach of music, movement, and drumming, could be used as
an effective tool and therapeutic approach to improve behavior in children with
developmental delays.