Author(s)

Carrie Ekins¹, Peter R. Wright², Marianne Liebich³, Jacqueline Wright⁴, Henry Schulz⁵, Dean Owens^6*

¹Drums Alive^® UG, 86500 Kutzenhausen, Germany.
²Department of Sport, Health Sciences & Social Work, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
³Katholischer Kindergarten St. Theresia, Bochum, Germany.
⁴Technische Universität Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany.
⁵Chair of Sports Medicine, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany.
⁶Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona, Florida, USA.

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.

Behavior, Multidisciplinary, Music, Movement, Drumming, Motivation, Impulse Control, Coordination, Concentration, Implementation of Tasks, Creativity, Plasticity

Ekins, C. , Wright, P. , Liebich, M. , Wright, J. , Schulz, H. and Owens, D. (2022) The Effects of a Drums Alive Kids^® Beats Intervention vis a vis Behavior on Children with Developmental Delays. Open Journal of Pediatrics, 12, 67-74. doi: 10.4236/ojped.2022.121008.