A certain percentage of children respond to IM training in a way that's seems just the opposite of what you are hoping to see, at first at least. Some children cry easily, or bounce off the wall, or nap all afternoon. They can not focus for the life of them, and you are doing IM to IMPROVE focus!
Seems odd, but it's a sign of good changes happening. If your child has tics or stutters, these behaviors may increase as well. This behavior is related to neurological reorganization. An analogy I use is: When you are cleaning out your closet. The first step is to pull everything out of the closet, making a big mess. Then you put it back away much more organized. An ongoing discussion among IM providers is the question whether this behavior seen during IM training is Neuronal Reorganization or Sensory Overload. I think it might be a bit of both, either way, it exists.
This lack of focus, teary eyes, even anger are most common between sessions 6 and 11 but length and intensity vary as much as the child. Some children do not experience these at all, while others are very impacted by them. I think the more sensory issues a child has, the worse his/her this behavior may be. Parents and teachers, do not worry, these 'negative reactions' are not permanent. They almost always disappear with in a few days or weeks of ending IM. They often look like a child who has not had enough sleep. Be sure to feed your child a healthy diet and get extra rest during training. I ran across this article that might help explain why. Here's a quote from the article.
I think the child that is very tired after IM training is actually increasing their EF stamina, but for that day they are exhausted and their EF skills are spent. For some children, they are only tired for that day. For others, I do not see this behavior limited to just the day of training. In this case, I often say it's the stage of 'getting use' to the new wiring, the closet analogy above. Sometime students can be disorganized through out the entire month or two. Give it time. And know that this is actually a good thing, evidence that things are changing.
See complete article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making
"When you focus on a specific task for an extended period of time, you are flexing your executive function(EF) muscles. It turns out, that use of executive function—a talent we all rely on throughout the day—draws upon a single resource of limited capacity in the brain. When this resource is exhausted by one activity, our mental capacity may be severely hindered in another, seemingly unrelated activity."
I think the child that is very tired after IM training is actually increasing their EF stamina, but for that day they are exhausted and their EF skills are spent. For some children, they are only tired for that day. For others, I do not see this behavior limited to just the day of training. In this case, I often say it's the stage of 'getting use' to the new wiring, the closet analogy above. Sometime students can be disorganized through out the entire month or two. Give it time. And know that this is actually a good thing, evidence that things are changing.
See complete article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making
