What's best for helping improve ~ PROCESSING SPEED?

Hi Laura,

We have the same goal for the summer. We are going to do IM and expressive language tutoring concurrently. I will train in PACE myself and after we complete IM, my son will go through the PACE program (training will have to take place during the academic year).

There was a BB discussion on IM back a few months ago and a thread where I asked questions about a month ago.

My son will be seeing the OT for IM and a learning specialist for expressive output (a combination of Lindamood Bell V/V and a program from Harvard—the name escapes me). The two professionals have offices next door and often colloborate. Below, I have cut and pasted an email response from the learning specialist in which she desribes some of the effects she has seen with IM. We do not have the experience yet, but are very hopeful. What the specialist says sounds encouraging.

Per the Learning Specialist:
In terms of IM results. I have seen IM speed up a students processing, and I
have seen it really even out a student’s profile. In other words, I have had
students who were either highly dependent on their visual realm for learning
who could equally as well utilize auditory learning techniques after
completing IM. I have also seen the opposite effect. I have a handful of
students who have been much more fluent with decoding, encoding, and math
facts when they are done with IM. I have also seen students become more
fluent and organized writers and speakers. I have a test I use to measure
learning efficiency, which has also shown that many of my students are far
more able to learn and maintain information in the correct sequence after
completing IM. Several of the mothers I work with tell stories about the kids
now cleaning their rooms or picking up after themselves in ways that had
never happened before. Several of the boys I work with are also now telling
me about how IM is helping them in baseball and skateboarding

My two went through IM. As I have said before,I am just a mom,not so sure what has done “it” for my two,but something has definitely contributed to this past school year. The one thing that I can say about IM,is the effects are widespread,so much so that one can’t honestly say hey,gee, that IM program really helped my kid to do this or that. One big thing,my 13 year old is waking up on saturday wanting to study for a test on wed. If it was IM that did this,thank you IM god. This is my kid who can’t seem to be successful studying with flash cards,he has to get it auditorily,so he studies the notes,then I question him,all the time it is said outloud,which has translated to written tests. ( he couldn’t seem to pass the test written before,always had the testing orally) I noticed this last trip around he ,after an hour or so of going over the notes,said,look mom I am not able to concentrate anymore,let’s stop now. He went back to it the very next day! WOW,now this was a big step for him. They also did Fastforword,OT,and are enrolled into a school specificly for lders. With all these big changes it is so hard to say,which did what,and which I could tell others to try. The thing I appreciated about IM,PACE,and even Fastforword in a sense is,they are all kid powered. It is all intrinsic,not someone else dragging them through it,it is strictly by their mind,their power,their determination. Does this make any sense? All this has happened in bits and peices through out the school year,which is another thing I have heard about IM,is the academic gains continue far after the program ends. I heard horror stories about IM,in the sense that it is hard going,intense and the kid will get frustrated,etc. While it was a three time a week investment,both of my kids were so enthralled with their progress that they wanted to go. It almost killed me and daddy trying to get them from school to the therapy center,while working fulltime and driving to and from their school. Aside from that they seemed to enjoy their time. I would encourage any parent to try IM,just like any other program that is out there. I will add,they are NOT picking up their room,but A’s on science tests came along instead. If this is all they got from it,I’ll take it. The therapist also suggested FFW before doing IM,because of the auditory processing needs to do the IM program.

This IM you both mentioned sounds intriguing. What is it and what does it entail. I’ve used Audiblox with my daughter and she has shown tremendous growth, but I’m always interested in other methods - if not for her, just for me to know about.

Thanks!

Hi Margo,
Just remind me how long the IM program is so I can plan ahead!

It would help if folks wrote

Impudent Monkeys (IM)
and then used the IM shorthand
in the rest of the post.

There are parents coming to this message board
who are just shattered by all special language
they need to learn and we all know that some
educators will use that language to intimidate and marginalize
parents.

Julie:

Sorry Julie,

Point taken.

IM is short for interactive metronome and you can read about it at www.interactivemetronome.com.

The program is 15 hours (for about $1500-2000). One hour per day spread over 3, 4 or 5 weeks. Actually, you could do it in a little over 2 weeks if you could find an OT willing to work weekends. I am told that if the motor problems are severe enough it will almost certainly take longer. We have been doing alot of body work/SI therapy (sensory intergration) and listening therapy (Samonas-www.samonas.com) to get ready. Our OT tells us that my son is ready. I also agree b/c I can see improvements in his overall coordination and motor skills.

IM was started by, I believe, a sound engineer and developed for musicians. He met up, by chance, with a dad of a special child and ended up using it to help this boy (with a prosthetic leg) to learn timing for his piano lessons. It had far more profound results…within a short time the boy was walking without a walker for the first time in his life (7 or 8 years old??). They thought maybe they were on to something…timing as the foundation for many learning skills. It sounded right to me at a gut level b/c every problem my son has is related to timing…he is that half step behind, if you know what I mean.

You can read all about it at the website.

There is, of course, the anecdotal evidence. It received alot of press.. CNN, local news shows, etc. Recently, an entire graduating class of a Florida High School underwent the therapy with seemingly great results.
But, I like MORE research and there needs to be more, but my son really doesn’t have the luxury of time. There was an OT study with ADD boys, published in the Journal of Occupational Therapy, also available on the site. The study was scientifically valid and a very good step in the right direction.
Hope this helps.

Ciao,
Margo

Several of the parents who frequent this board have used interactive metronome and I have read each of their posts over and over again before making the decision to put my son through a program of this intensity. I have not read one negative post on this therapy. Just helped me make my decision.

It might be helpful to do a >180 day search on “Interactive metronome” on this board, on the Parenting a Child w/ADD Board and the Teaching a Child w/LD Board.

Hey socks–I think you are a whole lot more than just a mom.

Ciao,
Margo

I am so sorry. You are absolutely right. God knows they do use a heck of a lot of words. It can be overwelming. I am sorry for adding to that.

Go to their website definitely interesting. I learned about Im through my OT also,but like Margo stated there is quite a bit of research to read about.

It is reccomended to do the program three or four times even a day for one hour. My did three days a week,it is rough on a family. Even at three days a week,my youngest who ironicly had the most trouble staying on beat,finnished before his older brother,who had better scores in the pretesting then his younger brother had. So went an additional week. So it was 27 sessions in all.

Hi socks,

I have a question about your posting above. Are you saying that formerly your son had to have the test given orally and answered by him orally and he now can take a written test and answer in written form?

I ask b/c my son did great back in his year 3 (US 2nd grade) standardized tests. They were UK curriculum and I have come to find out that many of the questions were asked orally with written responses. I do wonder if he would have done as well had he been required to read the questions.

Just curious. Thanks.

Ciao,
Margo

My oldest would study for a test,I would ask him questions and he could answer them,so I knew he was familiar with the material. Then he would go in and take the test,it didn’t seem to matter whether it was multiple choice,essay,fill in the blank,he would fail it miserably. I asked that he be tested again orally and he would pass the test orally,he would literally go from a 50% to a 96%. This is my kid who’s strength is auditory,while my other son who’s strength is visual didn’t seem to have this problem. Once we figured this out,when studying we would,or have learned to study using a auditory basis. But it didn’t seem to be until Im(intercative metronome) did he seem to be able to exhibit his knowledge either way. Hope all this makes sense.

Socks

I just discovered by accident this week that my son is not a terrible speller - he just can’t spell when he writes or types. This shouldn’t have been a surprise - he’s very auditory, but also dyslexic -ish and we thought he just couldn’t spell. Then I quizzed him orally for a spelling review and he could do easily 80% correct. 10 minutes later with pencil in hand he couldn’t spell much of anything on paper. We are revisiting OT this summer (plus reading remediation) so we can’t get to the Interactive Metronome type of level activity just yet. But your comments and posts hold out hope that when we get there it will help !!

Socks—

Thanks for the response.

Wow. That is a great achievement. It seems to be in line w/what the learning specialist said about evening out a profile. I know your boys have done other things as well, but, makes you wonder.

Ciao,
Margo

This is very interesting to me . My 10 year old daughter has trouble in all of these areas. This is the first time I have heard of anything like this.Does insurance cover any of this training?

from what we were told about 30% of people doing it have obtained insurance coverage,we weren’t in that 30%,of course!

We are lucky in that our insurance carrier covers 80% of our Occupational Therapy. We will just submit the IM as regular OT sessions and I think it will be covered.

It really depends on your policy. Ours doesn’t cover eyeglasses (even though my son has a medical condition -strabismus-requiring surgery and we had to fight tooth and nail for coverage) not just poor acuity, but it does cover OT.

First rule—never submit a claim which suggests therapy is for learning problems—find a medical condition that fits—we use motor coordination difficulities—and believe it or not, it went through. It is an entirely accurate description. I am sure some US OTs can be creative enough to find a diagnosis which stands some chance of being covered. It helps if your pediatrician is on board–sometimes difficult—for new therapies.

Thanks for the great responses! I did contact IM and unfortunately there is no one in close proximity to my home who is trained in it. But I’m going to keep searching and try to create a plan for the summer.

Also, thanks for the info about insurance sometimes covering OT! That’s really good to know. My son has an appointment with a neurologist in July and I’m going to see if we can get a referral for OT (that way we may get more coverage than going PPO).

Margo is absolutely correct in the medical based model,vs the learning one. Why? Because insurance companies state,now get this one,that the PUBLIC SCHOOL is supposed to provide this by law!! Amazing,I know,but it’s true.

All joking aside,IM is a rehabilitative program for motor planning and execution. If your insurance company will cover OT,then try it this way.

I would also check into any kind of therapy centers you have around. Any and All OT’s. WHat I have found is they are not being advertised yet,but they still have the training.

The standard treatment for IM is 15 sessions generally spread out over 5 weeks.

Some children require more treatments but it is somewhat difficult to predict. My son is doing very well with IM despite scoring very high in the pretests. Now my son has had a lot of other therapy first and that may account for his rapid progress.

BTW, my son hasn’t minded doing it at all, even though it looks pretty boring to me. (and it is boring to watch, I’ll warn you). His therapist is using rewards and contests with him and that is helping to keep his interest. We also have done some rewards with him—like when he got his first 1000 points.

Beth

Beth,
How is it boring? What does the therapy consist of?

Well, the child has to keep to the beat of the metronome. Basically, they have earphones on that are connected to a computer. Then they do an exercise in beat. For example, they clap hands in beat. They wear a sensor which helps keep track of how close to the beat they are. My son started hand clapping 250 ms off beat and now is 20 ms off beat so there is something def. going on here!!

But they work up to long periods of time doing the same exercise. So a child might move his heels one at a time back on a sensor pad for 20 minutes and near the end of the program for 40 minutes. Not too exciting to watch so bring a book.

I would think it would be boring to do too but one of the things IM tries to build is attention. I actually have been rather amazed at how little fuss my son has given about the whole thing. He can be the number one whiner.
Beth

How interesting! I wonder if enrolling a child in music classes would also be helpful? Perhaps not, but I think music is great for any kid. My (non-LD) daughter has studied piano for many years and I think it has been very good for her.

I would love to have my son study music too. I did have him in piano for about a year when he was 5, and he actually appeared to have a “gift” for reading music (if only reading letters could be so easy!). But we stopped because he’s so busy with tutoring, lots and lots of daily reading, homework and one extra-curricular activity (chess). Now if he could just have some time for socializing!!!

But I’m thinking of pulling him out of tutoring at the end of summer and enrolling him in piano again. Probably not as helpful as IM, but perhaps it would be good….

Thanks for describing IM to me! I read about these therapies and it’s quite difficult to visualize them. What might be nice is a “review” list. Where different therapies could be explained and parents could indicate exactly how it helped their child or was not quite appropriate.

Music actually has some of the same effects, although it works the other way too. Depends where your kid is at—many kids become muscial for the first time after doing IM. Our therapist suggests piano lessons as a follow up to IM (and karate too!!)

Beth

Where could I find out successes for interactive metronome?