PACE

Barb,

Have you considered Interactive Metronome instead of PACE? I saw your post on another bb in which you talked about organization, execution type problems and wondered if IM might not be more appropriate.

We had a decidedly mixed experience with PACE last summer. I would say this—make sure that any sensory-motor deficits, including sensory integration are remedied before doing PACE. Otherwise, you may find, as we did, that your chld simply cannot accomplish levels. Certainly, if the IM profile fits your child (see the website) it should be done before PACE.

We did IM this spring and frankly it was much more bang for the buck. It also wasn’t as painful to do.

Others have had much more success than we but I think my son’s cognitive deficits are rooted in his sensory motor systems.

Beth

Prior to starting IM, was your son tested to find out if he was “low” in the areas that IM helps remediate?

Just curious!

Hi Laura,

I don’t know if Beth is around but I just had my son tested for IM. Basicly they just go over the exercises with him to see what his timing is like.
He was in the second to worst category testing at 250. He will need about 5 pre sessions to get up to speed to be able to start the 5 week course of therapy. From what I understand kids who test over 300 may need OT before even starting the presessions. I think it varies by age group though. My son is 8.

I am still working out some insurance and vacation issues. I don’t want there to be any interruption in his tx and it turns out the therapist is taking vacation in July.
I am also still trying to get my insurance to pay for it but hope is fading on that front. They are calling his dyspraxia developmental (which it isn’t). My insurance doesn’t cover developmental disabilities. I will pay for it myself because I know it is what he needs but it certainly stings.

One other thing. She did a quick test with me. I tested around 70 which means I may have borderline attention deficits. This wasn’t really a surprise but I thought it was interesting. She said in the beginning I tested well, in the 20s, but that I lost my focus as the test went on. Oddly, I could feel myself losing the ability to pay attention as it went on.

How interesting about your testing!

I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble getting your insurance to pay. I know of someone locally who was able to get her insurance to pay for some visual therapy (and is now fighting to get more — and believes she’ll be able to get it!!!).

I really do need to look into IM. There is a place far from my home that does it, but after hearing the positive results here, I’m very tempted to make the long-trek!

Laura,
I wrote you before from my personal email (which is where I received your email), but I’m not sure you got it, so I’m contacting you again through the board. If you already got this message, disregard it. Where do I get my son tested to see if he’s a candidate for IM? In their office? Or, is there a 3rd party that evaluates for this?
Thanks!
Barb

Hi Barb,
I just looked through my emails and didn’t see any messages from or to your personal email address (maybe your wrote to Linda?), but I’ll try to answer you here on the board — to be sure you get my message!

There are other people here who know much more than me about IM and can better answer your questions. As far as I know you’d need to look on the Interactive Metronome website (you can find it quickly using Google) and then look for an OT who is trained in IM and located closest to your home. I believe the OT would do any evaluation.

Good luck to you if you decide to do this and please share the results! :-)

I don’t have emails either.

Laura is right. One thing to add OT is not the only one’s who do it. Speech therapists, nurses, psych, mds etc can all be IM certified.

Also lay people can do it as well. I heard that if your child is ld it is better to go with someone who has a clinical background. The clinical one will have cimt as their certification.
Check the site for an IM provider in your area.

In my area, there is a psychologist, and educational psychologist and an audiologist trained in IM. I am not aware of any OTs. I went with the audiologist because a. I liked her and b. my son has auditory processing problems and I thought she would be most in tune with him.

IM requires specific training but you don’t have tobe an OT. The person doing the training must first go through it themselves and get their scores into certain ranges.

Beth

My son had lots of testing prior to doing IM and I had considered it seriously a year and a half earlier. IM does pretesting though and my son initially scored over 300—the worst category possible. The audiologist (the same one who we eventually used) was going to do him as her first case for a cut rate. I don’t think it would have been good for anyone and we took her advice and sought other therapy first. We did Neuronet therapy for a year.

My son started the program with 217.53—over the “normal” that IM usually remediates in the standard sessions but only one category over. At half way through, he was 36.63. At the end he was 18.00 in the standard 15 sessions.. Everyone involved agrees his rapid progress it was because of the other therapy he did first.

Just the other day I came downstairs to my son hummng (on key) the Star Spangled Banner. He has never hummed or sang in his life (and he is 9). I think for the right kids, IM is a great program—relatively short duration with good results. They pretest kids so you know if your kid really does have a problem in timing. Normal kids score around 60 without training.

Beth

Beth,

Please keep us up to date on his progress. I find these results amazing. I wonder if you will see more progress over time.

The things I keep reading about remediation (not specifically IM) is that if they are behind in school once they are remediated it could take some time to catch up with the skills that they were behind in.
I wonder if your son will find work that was previously difficult easier.
Have you tried testing him with things that were difficult before. For example for my son I would try having him copy shapes on dotted lines something he has great difficulty with because of his spatial problems.

I saw this with my son when we remediated his reading through phonographix. At first he read very slow sounding out each word. Over time without further intervention (except pracitice including buddy reading) it all came together for him. He seemed to internalize his new found phonemic awareness slowly using it to become a fluent reader overtime. He then caught up even passing many in his class.

I have heard the same for other types of remediation interventions such as eye exercises for tracking problems etc.

It will be interesting to see if IM works the same way.

I think I will try testing my son pre and post IM with a few things I know he has difficulty with. I will do my own little outcomes study.

Linda,

We have been doing Neuronet therapy for some time. We took a break from it to do IM. Part of my logic was that we had hit some road blocks on NN. We picked up the exercises afterwards and in at least one of them, my son performance was a big jump from earlier. And this was an area that has been very stubborn—way outside normal limits for remediation. I am not sure how IM would impact it—it is auditory-visual integration—except that IM generally helps with neurological organization.

Beth

Beth,
It is strange that IM does seem to help different areas with different children. I don’t fully understand that.

It seems to pull a few areas of the brain together.

My sons timing is so off. When he goes off the diving board he seems to not be able to plan his footing to have that smooth flow you see in so many kids his age. His dad worked with him on throwing a ball. He is supposed to lift his left foot and then throw with his right hand in one motion. I watch other kids do this with ease. My son’s movements look so forced although he practices. I know he has bilateral motor coordination issues related to mixed handedness.
The OT seems to think IM will help in this area.

We start in August after vacations and camp are done. I wish we were starting today.

Linda,

I am sure you will see improvement. Our therapist told me of a child who went from being the worst soccer player to being the best with only IM and a year maturity to explain it. I will be interested to see how my son does in soccer this year.

I think you see different things because the kids are all organized somewhat differently. It is truely an interesting therapy.

Beth