Drumming

Daily Meltdown Days to Regulated, Centered, Focused

You did not sign up for this. Charlie was an adorable little boy. He had beautiful blonde hair and heart warming brown eyes. Some days however, a no would turn into a temper tantrum. There would be yelling, screaming, throwing things and gnashing of teeth.

You knew that as a parent you would have have good days and bad days, but not daily heartwrenching meltdown angry days, at a moment’s notice.

You feel exhausted, without hope and cannot imagine how to get from day to day.

There is nothing you did to deserve this heartfelt pain.

Charlie does not understand why he reacts this way , either. He knows that he does not feel good. He is always exhausted after the outburst.

But, what if it didn’t have to be this way? 

You’ve probably tried everything else already (counseling, play groups, sports), so why not consider a totally outside the box, fresh perspective? What could it hurt, right?

If your child was to be able to regulate their behavior and to do that by playing a drum – is that something that you could get into.

The connection between the hands and the brain is a strong mind-body connection. Pretend you are at a parade, your body begins to move at the beat of the drum as the parade comes down the street, you may also find yourself dancing in the street to the beat of the drums.

Drumming has been used throughout the ages and throughout cultures to impact, change and enhance movement. 

Children who have trouble regulating their behavior, and struggle with anxiety, benefit from drumming. Percussion instruments do exactly that, they are used to percuss, or hit the instrument.

Emotional dysregulation is when the feelings of anxiety, depression, anger , and sadness come way to fast to control . The child does not know how to regulate the emotional overload because they don’t have the maturity or the skills. When the diagnosis is emotional dysregulation, the body goes into fight or flight. Charlie is in fight frame of mind. Drumming has been proven to help regulate the dysregulation and desensitize the fight or flight response , thus improving the connection between the intensity of feeling to a more controlled reaction.

Bonus here – Drumming has been proven to improve motor skills, enhance the ability to pay attention and change the impact of the behavior on the individual. 

In my experience when teens begin to use percussion as an outlet – their behavior becomes more centered, focused and adapted to the current situation. This adaptation comes over into all areas of their lives and diminishes the chaos surrounding them and their community.

Music can make the situation better – go from this to this…

music can uplift …go from this to this

and change the status quo meaning….

It actually changes the brain and its functions. Expand. (For example…) Music is directly wired into our feelings. When drumming, the motor cortex and the cerebellum are activated. Which means….

This drumming incorporates rhythm and pitch and tone as well. Which results in….

The emotional section of the brain is the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala and the cerebellum. This is important and relevant to drumming because

As the music reverberates through the brain and the body, the emotional behavior of the individual is altered and changed. Specifically,rhythm helps to regulate behavior, recent studies by Barry Quinn, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist who runs a neuro biofeedback clinic for stress management, have shown that drumming for brief periods can alter brainwave patterns, dramatically reducing stress.emotions and interactions. Dr. Bruce Perry states that All life is rhythmic. The rhythms of the natural world are embedded in our biological systems.

How wonderful that your life can be changed, hopeful and with new promise simply by playing an instrument. 

Here’s how to get started using drumming . Find a music therapist, buy a drum pad and let your child beat on the drum pad, hire a percussion teacher.

Parents and family members can feel exhausted by constant meltdowns and out of control behavior. Meltdowns feel like they control family life, values, and most of all outings.

There is a solution, as long as you can handle drumming in place of meltdowns. 

Remember when all your child wanted to do was drum on your pots and pans? Your child was actually increasing the white matter in their brain. They intuitively knew…..

As children grow, many stop drumming on pots and pans. And we don’t give them a replacement activity that brings them the same relief and healing. Now you can…