Interactive Metronome after school too strenuous for 11YOld?

We did IM when my son was 9 with very good results. We did it at the end of the school year three times a week for five weeks. He did it from 2:30 to 3:30 (finished school at 2 and went right there). He was very tired the first week but after that it didn’t seem to bother him.

I didn’t see any results that year though so if it is easier on your son, you might want to wait until summer. I had heard from people that you see results about half way through the program but that wasn’t the case for him. It might have been that it was so close to the end of the school year at that point that attention was an issue for other reasons.

We saw improvements in attention and handwriting (especially endurance) mainly. He also had stalled with some other therapy he was doing and was able to complete it after doing IM. The neurologist had recommended a trial of medication and I waited until fall to get new base line measures from the teachers. The bottom line is we never medicated him and his special ed teacher said he was a new kid. Finally, he became much more socially connected. Now we followed up with more Neuronet therapy in the summer so can’t conclude totally what did what but no doubt IM played a big role.

Beth

My son, if he could just tackle two problems, could really blossom. He writes very slowly and he has trouble staying on task. The funny thing is, his handwriting is terrific! It just takes a long time.

Also, what is this Neuronet? Should I pursue it later after IM? Does it address the above issues?

Thanks so much for your reply.

Here’s the website. It does address speed of processing. Unfortunately, it is not widely available, although she does do long distance programs.

http://www.neuronetonline.com/

You might interested in this—Before my son did IM, the therapist asked him to copy a long paragraph. He stopped part way through and said he was tired. This was real life so I let it go. Afterwards, he copied the same paragraph but this time the whole thing. He was in his room so long that I thought for sure he was goofing off. He folded it up and addressed it to me like a letter.

We have continued to work on processing speed with NN but we saw a big jump with IM.

Beth

Thanks so much, Beth, for telling me your experiences. Your son sounds like he cares very much (the paragraph he wrote for you) and appreciates what you are doing for him.

We take my son to a counselor for depression. He is always feeling behind and fighting the focusing issues, yet he is capable mentally of doing the work. It becomes very frustrating for him.

He told us the other night that he appreciates all we are doing to try to help him. We haven’t gone the medication route yet; we want to try other things first. That’s neat that you didn’t feel the need to give your son medication after IM, NN etc.

We’re off to the zoo!

Hi Karen,
My son managed IM after supper, from 6:30-7:30. He too is ADD inattentive but has learning disabilities, and so the program took longer; we did many short sessions initially. When he was ready to do the 15 session program, he sailed through it and was quite motivated, despite the late in the day timing.

Like Beth, we did other therapies before and after, and so it is hard to pinpoint specifically the benefits of IM, but his were mainly in the area of sports ability and an increased adeptness and speed in copying from the board. He also used less pencil pressure, indicating that he found writing less arduous.

Unlike Beth, I did ultimately make the decision to try a very low dose of meds in combination with Omega 3 supplements (which makes a lower dose workable). This had a greater impact than did IM on his concentration and focussing at school. After IM, his teachers noted no improvements in focussing.

His speed of processing improved, though, independently of the meds, and I think this is due to IM, in conjunction with Neuronet and PACE. For ex., he is eligible for time accommodations, but does not need them. (We left them in his IEP in case he needs them at a higher grade level.) He often finishes his work in advance of other children now, whereas he used to need a reduced work load.

We have actually finished the IM treatments at this point, but I still found your reply very helpful for comparison’s sake. Our son has shown better coordination and less frustration at school, and I thought he was pretty coordinated before it started. He also is better at basketball and ping-pong. I didn’t think the sports side would matter a bit to us, since we don’t do organized sports very often, but that factor has been encouraging for him at school. The lower frustration at school could be due also to his counseling sessions, as well.

One neat thing was that yesterday we went to get a musical intrument assigned for band next fall. My son wanted to do percussion, but I told him to put it as his second choice because percussion is hard to get into here without piano experience. The band director, after having my son repeat some rythms by with his hands, PUSHED my son to do percussion. He said, “I don’t usually do this, but I think your son will be really good at it.”

When my son realized he had made his way by his own skill at something - which doesn’t happen much for him - he felt so good!!!!!

When we got home, my older son, who is in band and knows how hard it is to get in that section said, “I bet the IM helped”.

The middle school suprised us at our 504 meeting last week and said for him to remain in gifted classes he cannot have his math or writing assignments shortened. The problem is our middle school has only two levels - GT and regular. The regular classes have some real behavior problems and can be WAY easier. He doesn’t have any trouble with his current class content - just he needs to write less and work 3 out of 4 math problems. For instance, my son read the same book this year in 5th grade that the regular seventh grade class reads.

Anyway, we are having a new 504 meeting and possibly are going to file a grievance. He can do the work, but his slow processing speed makes him stress out. He was depressed and anxious bfore we got the 504 which allows for reduced output. Now they want to take it away, which means we put a kid with an IQ in the 130’s in a regular class, or have him struggle and probably get depressed again in Gifted. Everything I read shows he needs the higher level thinking to feel good about himself and increase his attention. Any suggestions out there?

Karen,

I am sure IM helped with the drums. These life side effects are big deals for kids because they make them feel more normal.

My son is not gifted so we don’t have those kind of issues with the school but I know other people have. I would suggest you take that part of your post and put it on the parenting bb with an appropriate heading. I have read about other people winning such arguments but since they are not relevant to us, I don’t recall how they did it.

Beth

Beth

How is your relationshop with the teachers? Sometimes, especially when they can see that the student is gifted and is working, they will do unofficial accomodations of various sorts, like taking the work home to finish, etc.

I would like to know what IM is. I’ve never heard of it before. My son has a very hard time and is quite slow in writing and reading. He has a nonverbal learning disorder and has ADHD. I don’t know if this would be anything that could benefit him but I would like to try anything I could to help him do the best he can. He is very down on himself because he thinks that he can’t do anything well and he thinks he is stupid. The child is not quite eight and can explain what a black hole is. He said the Disney movie THE BLACK HOLE was dumb because you can’t see a black hole, so why make make a movie about something you can’t see. I can’t convince him that if he knows things like this, there’s no way anyone can say he’s stupid. Tammie

Sorry Karen,
I didn’t notice the original date of your first post. Of course you would be through IM by now. I’m glad it helped.

I hope you can get a solution for your problem regarding the inflexibility of your district in meeting dual exceptionalities.

You are lucky in one sense, that a gifted program is available. Where I am, the individual classroom teacher is required to accommodate gifted students; due to cutbacks there is no separate program.

[quote:047558147c=”tammie”]I would like to know what IM is.[/quote]
[url]www.interactivemetronome.com[/url]

IM helped me a lot. I did it the summer after my first year of college (two years ago). Ever since I started elementary school, it took me about twice as long as most people to do most assignments. Then afterwards when I went back to college, I actually finished most of my tests when most of my classmates were still working on them. And I can finish homework quicker also. And I actually liked doing most parts of IM (except for the ones were you had to use only one foot)