Does it sound like IM would help?

You mentioned that you did a search on this BB. There are many threads on this topic and you have probably read my posts about IM. We did IM last summer between 4th and 5th grades. My son too had a big verbal—performance split. The split has narrowed over the years so it is not so huge anymore…but still there. He too reads very well (but he didn’t seem to have the CAPD to deal with). He had much trouble copying from the board, dysgraphia, biggest problems are spatial, motor and PROCESSING SPEED!

After IM, coordination and timing improvements—yes, yes, yes. He is still not good–but he is so very much better. He didn’t just all of a sudden become better at sports after IM. He had to practice…but it seems now that practice actually pays off with improvement. Before, all the practice in the world did nothing when it came to sports. He can use chopsticks, before he could hardly use a knife and fork properly.

Timing is much improved as is organization. He is now taking piano and I wouldn’t have even considered it a year ago.He is more aware of time and space, but, it is still an area of significant concern. He will go right for the trunk of the car to remove his skooter or skateboard if I collect him from a friend’s. Last year, he wouldn’t even have remebered it was there.

Best of all, his processing speed has improved. He is not quick, but he keeps up well in his class, finishes every assignment in the alloted time…and he is a perfectionist…so I am really not sure how he accomplishes this. Granted, he is in a very small, quite informal class (it is not the most academic of all schools). But, I am sure he is doing welll because I see it- I am in the class for 4 hours every Tuesday to help the teacher with both the math and language arts classes. His answers are incredibly insightful, so much more so than any other I see in his fifth grade class. He was always insightful (at least I thought so), but now can articulate his insights very well.

As for math, huge improvements in understanding concepts, he gets them pretty fast. His computation is still the slowest in the class, but his answers are always corrrect, and not so slow that he loses his place—which was a problem before IM. They do 20 timed multilication and division facts every day—all the kids are down below 30 seconds, he is still 60 seconds plus (1 to 30) ….Doesn’t sound good, I know, but trust me, this is an enormous improvement.

Handwriting—huge improvements. Keeps up with everything, copies from the board, writes reams and reams. I almost posted one of his stories to show everyone how proud I am of him….

He has all these books about being LD, how to be successful socially, etc… Just the other day he was looking for a book and we came across these. I asked if he wanted to read one. “No, he said, I don’t think I need them anymore, they’re for severe LD, like I was before IM.” After that he said he would like another go at his lower body and IM.

By the end of IM training, he was well w/in successful millisecond score for his upper body (it took double the amount of recommended sessions to get him there), but didn’t make the inprovements with his lower body. He actually wants to do it again this summer to work on his lower body. After summer camp, we may try because this was the single most effective therapy we have ever done and the only therapy that he actually said helped.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions—or just post. I stop at this board often.

Ciao,
Margo

By the way, I think I would do IM before Brainskills. We tried Brainskills last year before IM and quit (just not enough time in the day and I was the trainer). After IM, I asked him to try a few brianskills exercises that had been difficult for him. Well, they were no longer quite so difficult.

I have actually gotten trained in PACE (brainskills plus more visual exercises)myself and will (if only we could find the time) have him go through the program. But, he worked so hard with IM and he is having a pretty good year…. I am the one stressed that his school is, can you believe this, NOT ACADEMIC ENOUGH. I never would have thought I’d see the day!

Ciao Again,
Margo

I did IM while doing a program that works on visual spatial performance. It involved copying forms onto a grid. The forms get progressively more difficult. After a breakthrough with IM my son was able to skip about 100 forms while previously he struggled at a snails pace.

I do think it helped the visual spatial area. I have seen huge math gains since doing IM. I also think it helped with sequencing.

Hi Linda,

Just wondering what grid program. Was it in Rosner’s (?) “Helping Your Child Overcome Learning Difficulties” ?

Did you think it was useful?

Thanks,
Margo

I too have posted a lot on IM. My son had already done FFW, with nice improvements, and PACE, with minimal improvements. IM is more similar to FFw than PACE, in that it works on the sensory motor level. That is where, I have learned through trial and error, my son’s deficits are located.

Improvements: 1. ability to sustain writing. Used to collaspe after a few sentences although form was fine. 2. Was able to learn cursive this year while last year impossible 3. Improved athletic performance significantly 4. able to learn math was much improved. 5. ability to do therapy that had been impossible (in other words it broke down some walls). 6. much improved attention at school

My child is clearly still LD but we have made a big move forward.

Beth

Yes, that was the one. I did think it was useful. It is hard to tell for sure if it was that program or the IM because I did them simultaineously. I think it did help him to conceptualize forms.

After we did IM and that program my son could draw pictures, work on graphs, it made a huge difference. He is at grade level in math before he wasn’t even on the chart.

He will never be an artist but at least he can draw more than a stick figure and he can copy any design he has been given. I think with formal art lessons he could be even better. My friend helps him draw and he can do what is asked of him. He wouldn’t have even tried before.

Its hard when your child is complicated, and you embark on several different therapies, to know what is responsible for which improvements. We got the biggest observable impact from Seeing Stars, but who knows if that would have been possible without all the work that came before.

I mention this because we did do IM last summer, and while I feel it did yield some improvements, they were/are subtle. Some immediately improvements were that he stopped putting his clothes on backwards, but then just this week he started doing that again. Sigh.

I would say we saw improvements in handwriting and writing stamina. His written work aint’ beautiful, but his teacher this year does not consider him dysgraphic. Relative to his peers it looks OK.

My husband calls IM the $4000 handstand.

I do not know what I would do without these boards!

These decisions are sooo tough. Basically I had deep down decided to jump for it but needed some hand-holding and summarizing of all those threads on the board that are so numerous my eyes started to glaze over. I am willing to gamble & risk that this might be a $4000 handstand; my son has enough multiple issues it’s bound to do some good, and if it’s hard to tease out what pgm. did what, in the end it doesn’t matter if progress is made.

I agree with Beth that treating the underlying sensori-motor stuff is vital. In my son’s case, some of the signs are subtle (today’s report card showed a B+ in phys. ed. for example).

Complicating my clear-headed thinking these days is the emotional fall-out from my recent realization my second son might be LD too (currently being assessed for writing delay, possible mixed dominance)—maybe he would benefit from IM too. (Could it turn my husband into a dancer??? Maybe not. Good thing he has other qualities I treasure.!)

Thanks again.