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A professional drummer asked me to write a testimonial for her music business about why I feel playing the drums (drumming) helps people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). I have long known the benefits of drumming for children with ASD because our son, Doug, who is on the autism spectrum, was a drummer for many years. He started taking lessons in 6th grade and continued through high school and two years of college. He began with individual lessons and worked up to the drum line at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), where he was member of the Star of Nevada Marching Band.
Drumming and Autism
Individual lessons for drums, or any instrument, are important early on for people with ASD. The individual attention assists with focus to task, socialization, following directions and, of course, building a positive self-esteem, one of the most important aspects for any child's development. For our family, Doug's individual lessons soon bridged into lessons with another drummer and then into the junior high band. 
It is also important that the instructor knows at least a little about ASD. He or she doesn't need to have a degree in any health profession or to be a family member of a person with ASD, but they do need to know the child's particular learning style and emotional disposition. The instructor needs to know that children with ASD may have trouble focusing and following directions, may lose their temper if asked to repeat, and may not appear interested. Each child will react differently and the parent needs to offer explanations when and if they are appropriate so that the child can repeatedly experience success.
Benefits of Drumming
There are many reasons to choose drumming: communication/language development, social interaction, sensory diet, physical development, and personal development. These reasons are simple to complex and support self-esteem, typical school experience and quality of life.
Communication and language development: Communication is always a targeted area of concern for a person with ASD. This is often the most complicated and obvious aspect of their disability. What drumming does for language development is boundless. Learning to read music -- the pauses, the length and style of the notes, the overall piece, and how the percussion parts fits into the whole -- takes a great deal of language and problem solving.
When breaking the components of language down into finer details, it is not hard to see that drumming supports all of the language skills specified on most IEPs for children with ASD. These skills include: categorizing, sequencing, predicting, turn taking, attending, problem solving, socializing, making choices, following directions and perhaps even role-playing and reading body language. Whether the child with ASD is drumming on one drum or a set of drums, individually or in a group, he or she is practicing one or more of the above language skills in a functional activity.
Sensory diet: Occupational therapists are often a part of the team for a child with ASD. Drumming facilitates hand-eye coordination, fine-motor skills and crossing the mid-line. It brings in sound sequencing and acoustic awareness. Motor coordination, vestibular movement and visual perception are all a part of drumming and marching in a band. The occupational therapist can play a vital role in assisting a student in holding the drum sticks properly, where to stroke the instruments, and necessary movement of the wrists, elbows, and shoulders.
Social interaction: Drumming groups offer socialization, interaction and experiences that typical peers take for granted. New social situations are difficult for the student with ASD; however, if the student is proficient or even semi-proficient with the drums before being introduced to the group of band members, he/she will find it easier to perform what they know within that group. Our son found a group who accepted him for who he was and for what he had to offer to the whole.
Physical development: From hand-eye coordination to marching and playing at the same time, drumming affords students with ASD a challenge and an opportunity for neurological coordination and large muscle development. Moving left-right, staying in line, pivoting in place and following the drum major are all a part of marching band and they are difficult. As infants, many children with ASD never learn to crawl in a normal pattern; thus, these repetitions do not come easily and must be practiced repeatedly. When Doug was learning to crawl, he used the "military crawl" style and did not use hand-over-hand as most infants do. We implemented the Doman-Delacato Method of patterning on a nightly basis in our home.
Personal development: Maintaining positive self-esteem should always be among the top priorities of therapy, education and family goals. Developing a skill like drumming is important for feeling good about oneself. Being a part of a group will enhance the child's ability to work in a group environment when the transition from high school to employment is at hand.
Making Music
Is it realistic to think that all children with ASD can and should be drummers? Of course not -- not any more realistic than to think that all children with ASD will develop functional, verbal communication skills. However, many children with moderate-to-high functioning ASD can definitely benefit from drumming. The child may never become a professional drummer or perform in a drum line, but the skills learned will add a new beat to their lives.
Years ago, as I journeyed down this road of autism with my son, I asked myself, this question,
"Why shouldn't Doug be allowed to be a part of what is typical for other children? In the thousands of hours of various therapies that he received over the years, it was the normal aspects of life that made him feel good about himself. Drumming has not cured his autism but it has helped both of us keep the beat and move successfully through life.
Doug continues to march through life as he works full-time at a premiere resort on the Las Vegas Strip. He drives a car and has friends. I recently asked him, "What was the best part of your high school experience?" Doug responded, "Being in the band." Well, you can't beat that!
Kathie Harrington, MA, CCC-SLP, is the owner of Good Speech Inc. in Las Vegas, NV. She runs http://www.kathiesworld.com/ and is a frequent contributor to ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists. She can be contacted at KathieH2@cox.net.
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