How interactive musical instruments influence children with intellectual disabilities? : A user study of the Rullen Band

Sammanfattning: In order to further investigate the efficacy of interactive musical toys developed by students in the course DM2799 at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, we conducted a user study. The intended users of the toys are primary school children with special needs. The trials were held at the Rullen Dibber special needs school in Solna, Sweden. The study was conducted in order to be able to further develop the instruments and to better understand the needs and wants of the intended users. In order to do this, we studied the emergence of positive behaviors linked to musical expression. The study concluded that although the instruments did not result in any significant change in togetherness and nonverbal communication in the children during playing with the instruments, they were observed to be an effective tool in music therapy.