Drumming Lessons' Influence on Children With Down Syndrome

NCT ID: NCT07156318

Last Updated: 2025-09-05

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-12-31
• Study Completion Date: 2027-12-31

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if drumming lessons can increase self-control in children with Down syndrome. The main question it aims to answer is whether 2 months of drumming lessons can improve the behavioral control and timing skills in children with Down syndrome. Participants are between 7 and 15 years of age and receive two months of drumming lessons given by a professional drummer with extensive experience working with children with Down syndrome. Children in the experimental group visit our lab once before lessons start and once after lessons are completed. Children in the control group visit our lab twice before they start their lessons. Lab visits include brain recordings taken using a net-style cap, computer tasks, and drumming to music.

Detailed Description

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal cause of cognitive disability, and it affects approximately 1 in 700 live births. Although the genetic etiology of DS (a complete or partial third 21st chromosome) has been known for over 50 years, many fundamental questions about how to support high quality of life for individuals with DS remain unanswered. One area of relative weakness in DS is Inhibitory Control (IC). This skill is important for daily tasks such as following directions, making decisions, and managing money among other tasks. Existing research demonstrates a clear link between playing the drums and IC. In the proposed research, we will conduct an experiment in which 7- to 12-year-old children are randomly assigned to the Experimental (EXP) and Wait List Control (WLC) conditions. In the EXP condition, children will receive drumming lessons between Visit 1 and Visit 2, and in the Wait List Control group, children will receive drumming lessons after Visit 2. In this way, all children will receive drumming lessons, but only the EXP group will show effects of the drumming lessons in Visit 2. Testing conducted during Visits 1 and 2 will include behavioral and neural measures of inhibitory control and drumming, neural measures of beat perception, and parent report of social behavior (via Standardized questionnaire). Our predictions are that children in the EXP condition will show improvements in both measures of IC and increases in precision in the beat perception and drumming tasks. We also expect that parent report of children's behavior on the social skills questionnaire will show improvement. Across the EXP and WLC conditions, we expect no differences at Visit 1 but significant differences between conditions at Visit 2.

Conditions

Down Syndrome

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Experimental group

Experimental group will receive the drumming lesson intervention between baseline and testing approximately 2 to 3 months later, so the effects of the intervention can be assessed in the lab measures.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

2 months of drumming lessons given by a professional drummer with extensive experience working with children with Down syndrome

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Drumming lessons consisting of how to use hands to drum on djembe drum, using alternating hands to drum, drumming to a metronome and to music.

Control group

Children in the Control condition will receive drumming lessons only after they have completed lab baseline and testing measures, about 2 to 3 months later.

Group Type: OTHER

Lessons after measurement

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Receiving lessons after the two lab visits should still offer any possible positive effects to participants while still allowing us to compare the Control group children's behaviors to those of the Experimental group.

Interventions

2 months of drumming lessons given by a professional drummer with extensive experience working with children with Down syndrome

Drumming lessons consisting of how to use hands to drum on djembe drum, using alternating hands to drum, drumming to a metronome and to music.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Lessons after measurement

Receiving lessons after the two lab visits should still offer any possible positive effects to participants while still allowing us to compare the Control group children's behaviors to those of the Experimental group.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Down syndrome

Exclusion Criteria

• Already taken drumming lessons
• Uncorrected hearing loss
• Uncorrected vision loss

• Minimum Eligible Age: 7 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 15 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Vanderbilt University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Amy Needham

Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Amy Needham, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Vanderbilt University

Miriam Lense, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Locations

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Amy Needham, PhD

Role: CONTACT

amy.needham@vanderbilt.edu

16154999992

Caroline Danforth, MS

Role: CONTACT

caroline.danforth@vanderbilt.edu

(615) 343-1079

Facility Contacts

Caroline Danforth, MS

Role: primary

vuhandsonplaylab@gmail.com

615-343-1079

Alison Rubin, BA

Role: backup

vuhandsonplaylab@gmail.com

615-343-1079

References

Cahart MS, Amad A, Draper SB, Lowry RG, Marino L, Carey C, Ginestet CE, Smith MS, Williams SCR. The effect of learning to drum on behavior and brain function in autistic adolescents. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Jun 7;119(23):e2106244119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2106244119. Epub 2022 May 31.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 35639696 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

230465

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id