Started IM yesterday

Awesome that you got insurance to cover some of it.

Interesting that he had different scores on different sides of his body. For my son the big difference was between the hands and the feet. Right and left were pretty equal.

My son’s really high scores—in 200s—were those requiring both sides of the body to work together!!!

Interesting how every kid is a bit different.

My insurance excludes OT so I didn’t even try with IM but that is just great!

Beth

Just wondering if you would mind sharing who your insurance is with and who did the IM. If it was an OT, or not. I think alot has to do with who your provider is (for example, an audiologist can’t use motor type diagnosis), etc..

I’m looking at new insurance now. Currently we have United Healthcare’s Point of Service plan which we pay a great deal for and often what I need isn’t covered.

Hi Lori,

Our health insurance is through my husband’s work. We have a “local” Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, with the “Opt Out” plan (works like an HMO). There were no “preferred providers” with our plan who used IM. So I took our son “out of network” where the plan pays 80% of the costs after the deductible.

An Occupational Therapist did a preliminary evaluation so the insurance company would agree to the therapy. She did both formal and informal testing, and diagnosed him with dyspraxia - can’t remember what the actual DSM wording is - something like “developmental coordination delay” as the primary disorder, then she has another medical one, and then his ADHD. So he has three specific disorders the IM is supposed to help. If you need more information let me know and I’ll ask her. I had also gotten our primary care physician to agree to write a referral for the program if I had been able to find any provider in our insurance network.

Hope some of this helps.

Lil

Our IM was provided by a speech therapist so I bot bupkus (is that a word?) b/c aetna doesn’t cover speech therapy but does cover some OT. Go figure.

This article was in our local paper about IM. The Occupational Therapist in the article is working with my son now. He’s finished six sessions.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2003/112003/11192003/1159481

Lil

Lil,

We live where the headquarters of IM is located so it is all over here now. At soccer the other day, I noticed IM. They now have a program called MindSpeed for normal people—which they are marketing to athletes. It has 10 sessions instead of 15 and is done in a group setting for far less cost. I did the pretest and scored “average”. My son did too (1 1/2 years after IM). I was disapointed because he had scored so much lower during training but it was outdoors with wind and noise. But in any case, at the very least, he is now average while before he was over 200ms off beat.

Beth

Hi all,

My son has had 14 sessions so far. His OT says he is right on target for IM’s schedule - steadily going down on his time - usually in the 30’s and 40’s. Friday, he had 40 bursts in 2,000 reps - very exciting. :-)

After reading all the previous posts here about IM, I didn’t expect to see any real gains during the therapy. However, this weekend my 11 year old son instigated putting together a 700 piece 3-D puzzle that we’ve had for YEARS. He did more than his fair share, and was consistent with working on it the whole time we were putting it together. He also put together a 100 piece Pokemon puzzle (in his room - by himself) that I got for him probably back in first grade. :-)

We went to a Christmas party on Saturday night - and he ran with the pack of kids the entire time we were there - another first! He’s also more talkative, more easily bored, and seems to require more stimulation than normal. That will take some getting used to on my part, but I’ll find things and be able to redirect him when he needs something to fill his brain. Reading might be a good idea - time to find more books that interest him. :-) Plus we’re going to Orlando to the ReadAmerica clinic again the first week of January for another week of instruction.

Trying to get his ducks in a row for middle school next year!

Lil

Lil,

Once your son is reading on a 4th grade level or better, you might want to consider doing “Rewards” with him at home. It is really good at developing multi-syllable word attack skills, and works on fluency also. I have found it to be an excellent follow-up to PG.

Nancy