ISSN: 2642-6250
Authors: Latchman QY*, Dillon SR, Goo M, Davis R, Nichols D, Goudy L and Ekins C
Background: Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often encounter difficulties in verbal communication (VC) and task engagement (TE). This study aimed to investigate the impact of the Drums Alive® (DA) program, implemented as an antecedent-based intervention, on VC and TE among children with ASD. Methods: This study involved five male participants with ASD, aged four to six years. Employing an eight-week single-subject withdrawal research design (A1-B1-A2-B2), the research comprised structured activities (e.g., Legos, Jenga, hopscotch, and matching cards, etc.) in the A1 and A2 phases, each lasting 15 minutes. Subsequently, the B1 and B2 phases featured similar activities but integrated the DA intervention before the structure activities, lasting 30 minutes in total. Visual inspection was utilized to code and analyze the data. Results: During the B1 and B2 sessions, all five participants exhibited higher TE percentages compared to the A1 and A2 phases. However, no significant increase in VC percentages was observed. Conclusion: While the evidence is limited, the study suggests potential support for the effectiveness of the DA intervention in enhancing TE among children with ASD. Nevertheless, further research involving a larger sample size is imperative to validate the impact of the DA program comprehensively.
Keywords: Drums Alive®; Antecedent-Based Intervention; Verbal Communication; Task Engagement; Children; Autism; Spectrum Disorder
