FAQ: What time of day is the best for IM training?

Scheduling IM ( the biggest challenge )

8:00 - 9:15 am The preferred time for the child under 8 yrs old.
9:30 - 10:45 am Great for any grade school age child.
11:00 am - 1:00 pm (any 75 minutes)- Many parents like this slot; easier to transport and usually less academic information is missed.
1:30 - 2:45 pm Good for 8 and up that have average or better stamina. Students with low stamina will see more gain in the mornings typically.
3:00 - 5:00 (earliest 75 minutes that works) Reserved for Middle and High school.

Typically children come 3 days a week during the school year, avoiding Friday's if possible (children are just too worn out, especially the ones I see who work twice as hard to accomplish half as much). Many area schools are now familiar enough with IM that most teachers are fairly accommodating. They have confidence that the child will, post IM, have a better school year. Some parents try to recognize the teacher's accommodations and willingness to be flexible with a small baked item or personal thank you note. Summer training happens 5 days per week.

Scheduling IM can be challenging, but it's a short term commitment. When we went through various interventions with our son, everything was long term. Years of counseling, behavior modification programs, medication and a lot of cost. IM, relatively speaking, is extremely quick and inexpensive.

I am amazed how many grandparents help in transportation (and even the cost.)  I even have some groups of grandparents and kids together - loads of fun. Use the resources you have to help out. Some times people are honored to be asked.

FAQ: Can we do 5 days a week during the school year rather than just 3 days?

Though I know much of IM's research is based on training 5 days a week, my experience has led me to recommend 3 or 4 days a week when school is in session, especially for children with lower stamina. If students do 5 sessions a week during the school year, I find that on Friday I usually don’t see the gains that I do the other days. The combination of school and IM is just too exhausting!

During the summer, I do IM five days a week. No problem. When I am in a school, I also do IM 5 days a week. The teachers have helped to work out the schedules so the children won't have much make up homework and the children miss less class time with no travel time. I do notice some children in the schools are a little less efficient by Friday, but I don't have the flexibility to stretch the training out like I do in my office. I typically see very nice gains either way - 3 days a week or 5 days a week.

Mental Impairments Linked to Toxins

Yesterday I found this very informative sight, Institute for Children's Environmental Health . I am of the opinion that our children are 'the canary in the cave' so to speak for our environment today. The rise in neurodevelopmental issues is unprecedented. One in six children today have a neurodevelopmental disorder! Most of the children I see probably have recieved some environmental insult to their neurological system at some time in their short past. IM helps with the recovery of these affected neuropathways, but are there ways to prevent the issues in the first place!

With a grandchild on the way, I've been reading the latest in environmental safety and health. This up to date site covers almost all of the topics of concern. Parents, especially expectant parents and parents of young children, should check it out. We all should since these toxins are implicated in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, asthma, and cancer. As a society, we removed lead from gasoline years ago when we discovered how harmful it was. Today we can change the world again.

Why do some children blame?

"Sensory integration and sensory processing problems distort perceptions."" Pg 247 of Patricia Stacey's book, the boy who loved windows. Read more on the previous posts.

I agree. Sensory processing issues including timing issues often correlate with altered perceptions. Many children with poor timing tend to blame, a form of denying ownership. Post IM I almost always hear of some gain in the child's ability to take ownership. "He said he was sorry." "She said it was her fault, etc." In my experience, there seems to be a direct connection between timing and ownership. These children actually experience the world so differently, perceive so differently, that their reality is distorted. You and I may be able to clearly see the connections; they cannot. In truth, we all perceive the world differently, because all of our sensory systems are different. But with poor timing, this can become problematic.

In house, a common timing issue that a child might have is to clap consistently about 100 ms too soon. He will even tell me with wholehearted sincerity, "I think the computer is wrong. I am clapping right on the beat and it says I'm too fast." He blames the computer for his error. He perceives the world his way! Even adults will tell me this in house. --It's one of the behaviors I find comical. I tell them to remember what that feels like, because in just a couple of days, they won't think the computer is wrong any longer. But, at first--in the reality they live in at that time--the computer is wrong!

Imagine a child with impulse to be early (a timing issue) on the baseball field. He's poised and ready to hit the ball. He's impulsive by nature and his swing is 100 milliseconds (ms) too fast. He wouldn't swing too fast if he believed the swing was going to be 'too fast'. He swings too fast because that's where he believes the ball actually will be at that moment in time. Typically, children do try to hit the ball!

This is how his day may go: The boy swings at the ball. The ball goes foul. The coach says, 'slow down'. Now remember, the boy's perception of time is skewed so when he "slows down", he would have to aim "too late" in his mind to hit the ball. Even when consciously slowing down, he's probably going to swing too fast. If he is able to reject his own perception and slow down, he will have no idea when in that late area he should hit the ball, after all, in his perception the ball is already past him. It will be a shot in the dark for him. Next time he's up to bat, he swings too fast again.

The coach, with a little frustration now, says, "Slow down!" Because the coach's timing is fairly accurate, he perceives real time better. The boy, also flustered from trying his hardest and still failing, responds "It's not me. It's those kids yelling over there." In the boy's perception, he's already tried slowing down, but that didn't work; that wasn't the answer. --What else could it be? He chooses something that makes sense to him. In his past, distractions have caused problems. It makes sense. He doesn't take ownership of his own actions, because his perception is different from yours and mine. He sees the world differently. We often say these children march to their own drumbeat. And they do! Sensory processing issues as well as poor timing can cause altered perception.

Mind and Body Connection

"I was learning the new discoveries of brain development, the very foundations of intelligence. I had... mistakenly believed that the body was somehow inferior to the mind. Using Greenspan's developmental approach, I quickly understood that the brain depends on the body for its breadth of knowledge. By moving through space, we integrate with the world. Movement stimulates brain function. Time and again, Arlene (her son's OT) went straight to the body and its movements to help stimulate the nerve impulses that build mental pathways." This passage from Patricia Stacey's book, the boy who loved windows, describes very well the concept that by impacting the body through IM, you are also impacting the mind. She refers to Dr. Stanley Greenspan's floortime intervention that she used for her son's sensory integration issues. Dr. Stanley Greenspan wrote an article about Rhythm and Timing in the Early Childhood Today magazine a few years ago and discussed what was then some new Interactive Metronome research. Check it out.

Here's a quote from Dr. Greenspan about IM. "The Interactive Metronome provides a long needed and important educational and learning approach to improve a number of critical foundations in the learning process."
Stanley L. Greenspan, MD
leading child psychiatrist

"If you want to improve one system, go in through another," he (Greenspan) said, "If you want Walker (Patricia Stacey's little boy) to learn a word, you must use the body to teach it." "Remember" he said, "it's by moving that we come to understand space. You understand concepts by looking and doing at the same time, not by reading." pg. 214 of the boy who loved windows

Sensory Integration Insights

In a recent book I read, the boy who loved windows, author and mother Patricia Stacey has some great insight into sensory integration issues. With a dedication only a mother can give, Patricia was able to turn around the direction her son Walker was heading, giving hope to those facing autism. I'll share a couple quotes.

Pg 35: "Imagine your sensory world scrambled and unregulated, your auditory intake an incessant rock station--- or worse, mere static--- blasting in your ears. Imagine your kitchen light as bright as a searchlight, boring into your corneas every time you turn it on. Imagine yourself in clothes so irritating that they seem lined with metal scraping brushes. Imaging walking past a woman wearing a spritz of Chanel No. 5 that leaves you disoriented and dizzy. This can be the works of sensory integration dysfunction."
Expressed that way makes me feel sorry for our Brad who at 4 would curl up in a ball and cover his ears during gym class, at 8 could be coaxed into wearing soft clothes only, and for years ate so few mostly carbohydrate foods.

Pg 85:
"If we close our eyes, do we know where our hands lie or move? Our toes? Some individuals don't. I have often wondered what a profound proprioceptive deficit feels like -- a kind of swimming, a floating world, where the self evade itself, like water through a sieve."

"Within the proprioceptive sense there exists a sense of one's relationship to moving bodies-- the particular sense of one body's relationship to another body in space. Thus, the proprioceptive sense determines, in some sense, the negotiation of relationships as well. Arlene explained that Walker was spending so much time trying to figure our where he was-- a sense that come to us through the joints and muscles--- that he couldn't quite know where we were."
This could very likely be the explanation for Brad's lack of interest in relating to his peers as a child. His brain was too full simply taking care of his own relationship to the world in time and space, how could he focus on others?! IM helped him define his own body with in time and space. Immediately, he began being able to connect with others! Pre IM he labels his life as social-less. Post IM his social life began.

"Sensory described what came into the organism. Motor described what came out. They were the alpha and omega of the nervous system, and nearly every letter in between.Quite simply, taken together, they represent most of what the brain did." pg 214

We have sensory processing issues at times, too. "When the average person is ill, the brain and sensory system, absorbed with healing itself and managing pain, has difficulty tolerating 'normal' amounts of stimulation. The body and neurological system are already overloaded by the illness and like a computer given too much information to process too quickly, need to shut down some systems. This is why people who are extremely nauseated, for instance, can't stand to be touched. When we're sick, we often experience bright lights as painful. Sensory integration and sensory processing problems distort perceptions." Pg 247 of Patricia Stacey's book, the boy who loved windows.

Page 216 has an amazing description of the body in time and space, too long to post. Our public library has this book and you can order books online with your library card. Check it out.

FAQ: My doctor doesn't recommend IM?

Last night a mom wrote:
"My Dr. wanted me to ask if you had any students, “clients”, that are willing to talk to me about their child’s success with IM." (Parent of 8 yr old boy)

I passed this email on to a few post IM parents and asked if they cared to respond."

Response 1:
"I have a now 13 year old boy that received IM last year. He has ADHD and is very impulsive and does have a mild form of the tic disorder Tourettes. IM did help him quite a bit. He is overall calmer and more focused. We still use meds but he can carry through several command instructions now that before he would only be able to do one or maybe two. He is better able to "stop" himself and redirect when asked. He still struggles but I truly have seen improvement with him. He also seems A LOT less frustrated. He is a happier child. I think IM helped him see the world in a different light. I am a foster parent and feel this therapy would be VERY beneficial to foster kids as well. It helps their brain "process" easier from what I see from my son anyway. Feel free to give me a call if you'd like. I am hard to catch but my number is XXX_XXXX (Name)
I have an 8 year old daughter that took it last year as well. My mom has said she is more verbal and communicates better. I have noticed she is more willing to read books outloud than before but that is all I have seen on her. I feel this tool is very helpful to kids that have special needs and somewhat helpful to kids that do not struggle as much. I do want to put my daughter through another round since I saw such improvements with my son. My daughter is somewhat uncoordinated and I think this could help her. Lori also directed me to a possible vision processing problem with my daughter. We had that checked out by an eye dr who said she does have some vision difficulties despite 20/20 vision but the next screening is pretty pricey so I have not finished the screening."

Response 2:
"I am the parent of a 17 year old Asperger/OCD/ADHD son. He has difficulty with organization, initiating homework and chores, finishing tasks, and social skills. We were at our wits end with him. We really didn't know what to do. Life was just not clicking for our son.

Then a friend of J-----'s at school recommended IM. We have gone thru 2 rounds of IM with Lori Schmidt. For us, the results have been pretty amazing. He is now initiating most of his homework. I will often walk into his bedroom and find him doing homework!!!!!! Before, we couldn't even find it! I would clean his room and find it stuffed in drawers, the trashcan, etc. He now does his chores without a fight, most of the time. He even volunteers to help his sisters (i.e. last night it was dark and my daughter L---- did not want to take the trashcan to the curb-she is kind of afraid of the dark). J----- did it for her. I didn't ask him to. He is doing kind things for others. The center of the universe is not J----- anymore - at least not as much as it used to be!

His social skills are still a challenge, but they are much more developed than they were even a year ago. He actually had his first girl friend this past year. And he had his first job this past summer. I was beginning to worry that he would even be able to hold a job when he graduated from high school. We have a long way to go, but we are very hopeful for the future."

Response 3:
"Dear Parent of the 8 year old boy,

I would like to tell you about my experience with IM. My daughter participated in it when she was 11 ½ years old. She attended 5 times a week for 3 weeks. We did this so that we could get it done as quickly as possible during the summer. I made an agreement with my daughter that if she did it without complaining then I would not make her work with a math or reading tutor over the summer. After about 4 lessons she told me it was easier to do dance spins on her left foot. (She is a competitive dancer.) I didn’t put too much stock into it at first. Then after she’d had about 10 sessions my dad saw her for the first time in 4 months. He said she didn’t have that “blank” look anymore when he talked to her. I noticed she started talking about things that were more detailed and more important (like telling me she was glad people were starting to care about the environment.) When we’d finished the program I waited a few days and asked her what she thought and she said this, “Well Mom, what I can tell you is this….I think now before I talk.”

Enough said….it was worth every penny! And, as if that wasn’t great enough, she improved on her MAP testing significantly over the summer without any tutoring. Family friends have noted she is more mature. She has better fine motor skills….loves to shuffle cards and was very frustrated by it before. Now she shuffles better than many adults. When she is playing a card game that requires her to keep track of lots of things at once and is based on speed, she can compete now with everyone playing and has even beaten me on more than one occasion. Before IM she needed an adult’s help to get her through it.

I know some of these examples may seem irrelevant. I’m a special educator realize that too often we judge success only on the academic scores. The truth is, IM has helped my daughter become ready to learn and in doing so she’s improving in all areas of her life. The improvements were seen in areas I didn’t even realize were issues until they suddenly were easier and my daughter’s self esteem was booming.

I urge you to give your child an opportunity to benefit from IM. Everyone’s results are unique and it may be that your doctor is basing “improvement” on a very narrow definition.

Best Wishes,
Parent of an 11 ½ year old girl."  

Response 4: A mom of a teen ager asked for some referrals and this is one she was sent. This mom carbon copied me in.

Hello, M------!

I heard from Lori Schmidt that you're considering Interactive Metronome for a teenager.  I'm happy to share my/our experience and to answer any questions you might have.

My daughter, M---- (!), did IM with Lori last summer.  M---- was 16 and an honor student.  She is also frightfully disorganized--seriously messy--and it had reached a point where I thought it could/would really impede her future.  --In jobs, in relationships, etc.  When I told M---- about the program, I thought she'd balk, but she was intrigued.

The program makes a lot of sense to me and as Lori will point out, you can't accurately predict exactly what kind of impact it will have on your child.  One thing I was concerned about was whether or not it would change her so much that she'd have a different personality altogether.  That did NOT happen, thankfully.

M---- loved the therapy.  She was very excited to see her own improvements and Lori's encouragement was amazing.  M---- was always looking for ways her improvement in therapy carried over into life in general.

Truthfully, I didn't see the organizational improvements I'd hoped for, but I would have to say there has been at least some improvement in that area.  She used her "cubbies" at camp for the first time ever.  She's started using her planner at school for the first time ever.  Even though her room still gets pretty messy, she doesn't battle me quite as much about picking up and she seems to complete the job faster than she used to.  She's started taking care of herself a little better...

I think the most notable improvement for M---- has been in mental processing.  This has evidenced itself in a number of ways.  On the lighter side, she was the "drill down" queen at her summer dance camp where she basically won every competition for learning drills the fastest.  She mentioned playing some card game that involved quick thinking.  She was playing better than ever and winning when she never had before.  Those things are fairly trivial and NOT why I sought out IM!  But she's a junior this year and took the PSAT.  This is the year it matters the most (for National Merit standings).  Although she'd done respectfully well last year, it was not even close to range for qualifying as a scholar this year.  But she had a HUGE jump in her scores this year (189 last year, 213 this year).  As a minimum she'll be a commended scholar and her guidance counselor thinks she has a good shot at becoming a scholar.  This is something I never would have expected and I have to think IM played a part in helping her get through the testing with more focus and quicker processing than last year.  And just by the way, M---- just doesn't fit any scholarly stereotypes.  She still has her very random, unconventional, bubbly personality.

I have another daughter who is 3 years older than M----. More our "classic" scholar.  She would love to try IM just to see how it might help her.  I don't know if that will ever happen.  She doesn't struggle so much with organization and grades were never an issue for either of them.

M---- is still messy.  She still procrastinates a lot.  IM didn't erase my concerns.  But I do think it helped and was very worthwhile, and M---- absolutely loved Lori who (by the way) really makes IM work for her people.

Feel free to email me with questions.  I'm in Maryland this week and not checking email with great regularity, but I'll try to watch for any communication from you.

R----

My thoughts as to why Dr's might miss gains:
I like what the third parent said, 'the doctor might be basing improvement on narrow definitions, one of them being getting off meds. Many students do lessen their need for or even get off medications, but some don't.

Doctors also don't see the children enough to notice the changes. You are in their office a whole 10 minutes, maybe. Other parents or teachers would be better choices for references I believe. Many doctors are use to prescribing medications to impact focus. Even the thought of a movement based computer program impacting cognitive functioning is thinking outside the box for a good many of them. I think gradually doctors will be educated about the success of movement based, timing based interventions, but I expect it will take a long time to get there.

I find that even some parents look at just one or two annoying behaviors, and miss some of the more subtle but significant gains, especially if they are busy parents or themselves have lower than average timing. Many dad's are unable to label the specific changes though dad's will often say the child is 'maturing' post IM. I hear this statement very frequently from parents - "I don't know if it's IM or they are just maturing." Constantly! Because you expect a child to mature, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. But quick maturation is a huge part of what IM does. IM methodically matures the neurological system. As a child ages, their internal timing improves. The whole concept behind IM is the improvement of the child's internal timing, moving their internal timing up a few years, in other words "maturing it". Noticeable 'maturation' is an IM gain.