RHYTHM PLAYING CHARACTERISTICS IN PERSONS WITH SEVERE DEMENTIA INCLUDING THOSE WITH PROBABLE ALZHEIMERS TYPE

Persons in the late stages of dementia, including those with probable Alzheimer's type, are in need of meaningful activities which contribut e to their life quality. These activities are mandated by accrediting agencies for facilities which provide services for these persons, but their abilities to participate exclude them from most therapeutic prog rams. Some preliminary work in music therapy has indicated that rhythm applications are very successful with persons who are severely regres sed with dementia and who can no longer function well enough to mainta in their activities of daily living and require institutional care (Cl air and Bernstein, 1990a; Clair and Bernstein, 1990b). The purpose of this study was to describe the rhythm playing characteristics of perso ns who receive institutional care and who have a diagnosis of dementia , including those with probable Alzheimer's type. In this study subjec ts served as their own controls. Results indicated that they increased significantly in their success to imitate progressively more complex rhythm patterns. They also had significantly more successful participa tion, defined as striking a drum with either their hands or with malle ts, from the first baseline to the first experimental session in which the music therapist provided the structure for the rhythm activity. F rom the first to the last experimental session subjects did not increa se significantly in their participation, but there was a significant d ecrease in participation from the last experimental session to the ret urn to baseline session which followed it. Results also showed the mos t participation occurred with the floor tom followed by bass, paddle, and frame drums respectively. This study demonstrated the success of r hythm applications using drums with persons in late stage dementia. Im plications are that applications based on the protocol used in this st udy will be successful in other settings and can serve as the foundati on upon which to build programming for individuals in special care set tings.