Hello everyone,
I have dropped into this site every now and again over the past few years….
I have a ten year old son who is dyspraxic (and might be diagnosed as NLD if we lived in the US—though he is very social and popular at school). He has a big VIQ/PIQ split, reads and comprehends well above his age level, math is age level—but slow–- . He is doing great in a small private school with a great teacher. We are relocating to another foreign posting after this academic year. So much of the school experience depends upon the teacher. I really want him to be at his best and feeling confident when he starts new.
He is very poorly coordinated. He has been swimming since he was 4, but still doesn’t have the strokes right. Soccer was a nightmare, but he insisted on participating anyway. He finally decided to stop after Easter and join the lunchtime chess game instead. I am a bit worried since he takes forever to make up his mind and move a piece!
I have been reading about Interactive Metronome for a while now.
Speed is his biggest issue…”hurry up” just doesn’t compute. The school bus will be blowing the horn ouside the gate and he will still walk down the driveway in his own SLOW time. He has no idea that he appears very rude, despite hearing me explain this several times.
I guess I am still looking for the magic cure despite three years of this….OT, Samonas, swimming instruction, summers at the Lab School, biofeedback, speech therapy…it has all helped a little…but nothing has knocked me over —other than his own hard work and determination.
If anyone who has experience with IMT could respond, I would be so appreciative. The web site looks great and the professionals sound genuinely convinced that it helps. But, I would like to know what parents think.
My question for all of you who have done IMT is what specific benefits have you seen in the areas of motor coordination, speed, and timing? Can your children now catch or throw a ball that is not fed directly to them, or do a cartwheel, or use cutlery correctly? Are they able to join in team sports? Do they still come in last? Have you seen increased fluidity or maturity in movements? Has anything speeded up? Have you noticed improvements in response speed or processing speed? Was anyone tested before and after IMT on perhaps the Bruininks-Oseretsky Tests? or WISC III performance subtests?
Many thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this. If anyone would like to correspond privately I can be reached at [email protected]
All the Best,
Margo
Re: IMT, socks?
Your son sounds quite similiar to mine, academically and physically. I have looked into IM, but as yet I have not seen enough research to convince me of its long term effectiveness. There is some very promising research showing improvement in some children though. Has your son ever been evaluated for ADHD, especially the inattentive subtype? Once my son’s very subtle case was diagnosed and he began taking stimulant medication he became much less “slow-moving.” The medication did not significantly improve gross motor skills, but it did improve his handwriting quite a bit, along with his ability to quickly solve math problems. We had been told before that if he had ADHD it was mild and unlikely to be having a significant effect on his performance. As it turns out, the ADHD was a major part of his problems and treating it caused improvements way beyond what we expected.
Andrea
Re: IMT, socks?
Thanks for responding. Actually, he doesn’t have the oral dyspraxia diagnosed by speech thereapists. In fact his vocabulary and articulation are tops, though he does exhibit some word finding difficulties, I think it is all tied up with a poor working memory. HIs long term memory is incredible. He has motor coordination disorder also called clumsy child syndrome. We are in Asia and they use British names for diagnosis.
I have lately been wondering if indeed he has the inattentive type ADD. At first, I completely ruled it out because he can often focus so well (maybe he is in hyperfocus mode). When his mind is not in the game, which happens whenever he is involved in a physical or sports activity, he will start talking about ancient history or age of empires or whatever he thinks of, right in the middle of a pass…….
How do I know if it is ADD or an LD? I really did think it was NLD for a while. But, he is social and has great visual perception–off the charts, (though he cannot make that work when a motor component is introduced) and he is lost in space.
I also wonder if I am hoping for ADD rather than NLD since the literature on NLD is incredibly depressing and meds are of no use.
What do you guys think?
Thanks again, I love this site!
Margo
Re: IMT, socks?
Andrea,
Thanks for your feedback.
Did you have any side effects with the meds? Which meds are you using? In addition to better handwriting and improvements in math speed, what else have you noticed? Has his processing speed genrally improved with the use of meds?
I am thinking of seeing a neuropsyc.. and maybe going on meds for a trial, but, I have read that some kids get tics and the tics last even after the meds are stopped. What are your experiences?
Thanks,
Margo
Re: IMT, socks?
Hey Margo:-)
OKay one kid with CAPD,sensory intergration disorder,ADHD,and Dysgraphia. He had a significant word retrevial problem,slow as molasses in the winter time during certain times,and hyperactive at other times. Dyspraxia was mentioned before,so was PPD. Articulation was a problem when much younger,and language ability was definitely a problem up until this past school year.
Started him on Ritalin SR,this seemed to help the attentional span issues and the hyperactivity,but seemed to be significantly decreased his language abilities. Word retrevial was worse and initiating conversation or conversing effectively was not happening and seem to be worse on Ritalin SR.
He changed to a small private school specificly for lders, concerta,did FAstforword and Interactive metronome. Not at the same time,incidently being CAPD,he had to go through auditory remediation like fast forword before doing IM. So,he is doing incredibly well. Unbelievably well,he is interacting,conversing,more in synch,has a good attitude and rarely get’s himself in trouble ,or having problems paying attention. What did it? Don’t know. I honestly do not know…. He did wonderfully in the interactive metronome. As a matter of fact he has scored or improved to such an extent he broke records at the therapy center he was at. He scored better then adult athletes. This from a kid when he started had to be patterned,in other words the OT had to do hand over hand with him until he could do it by myself. This only proved the significant problems with motor planning. he can now immeditaly tell with hand is left and right,couldn’t do this before. He doesn’t seem to miss that last step when walking up the steps into the house. Not sure what made the difference. Something did.
Has Oral motor therapy been done for the dyspraxia in speech therapy? Does he have more of a word finding problem or does he have a difficulty with articulating and moving his tongue from place to place in his mouth rapidly? If he has problem with articulation and motor planning in his mouth this may be of interest to you. I have been treating a little girl with apraxia and auditory processing issues. I discovered part of her problem with timing and articulating was that she has a very poor auditory memory. So we have been doing oral motor therapy to strengthen her tongue muscles and to help her with fluency in speech we have been doing songs and fingerplays slowly. Amazingly enough she is becoming more and more intelligible and she is getting the songs and fingerplays and is able to sing them, on key and on time while moving her hands and her body. We are also reading a lot of books together that feature her misarticulated sounds over and over again. She is just blossoming and having fun at the same time. So perhaps the IM would help with your son’s overall processing and gross motor abilities but perhaps music and songs accompanied by Oral motor therapy would help with any residual verbal dyspraxia.