Wonderful question from a mom today (Nov of 2009 actually - when I began this post.) She had stayed during IM and watched her son in the squirrellies. He was swaying, moving his body non stop, looking out the window, etc - simply following every thought his brain had - NO INHIBITION what so ever.
Inhibition - Think about people you know who have good inhibition, versus those that don't inhibit anything. What behavior is more 'mature' ? Take a few minutes and just think about this.
Here's a picture of a 7 yr old boy with in house 'squirrellies.' Today about every 1 to 10 seconds, this lad gave into some random sensory impulse, an overwhelming urge to move, much like an itch you just have to scratch.
He was swaying, flicking his fingers on the trigger, and even had the impulse to clap for himself when he did well. Of course clapping for your self means hitting the trigger off the beat, since his whole goal is to clap on the beat, this behavior seemed pretty opposite of what he's trying to do, and yet, he would clap for himself off the beat! He gave into all of these, even when he didn't want to. Once, when he clapped for himself, he then followed it with an "Oops, I'm sorry," knowing I was going to tell him, "Stay on task, stay focused - save the cheering until the end." He was unable to hold on line the goal of the moment (to focus on hitting the beat) when the impulse came to cheer himself on..... He could not inhibit! Everything that he thinks or feels, he must act upon, whether appropriate or not. It's not under his control. His timing is off - the impulse comes before the inhibition comes. At times, IM seems to intensifies what is already happening in these little brains.
In the classroom these children think, hear, see, or even smell everything and follow that thought, sight, sound or smell to where ever it leads. This major distractability is usually labeled as lack of focus or attention (ADD/ADHD). It's not actually an attention issue, these children attend, they attend to everything! High stimulus items are highly attended to (computers.) The issue is 'everything' has nothing to do with getting their school work done or finding their shoes in the morning. They follow where ever their little brains lead them. They can not inhibit the impulse to look, move, talk, touch, cry, shout, space out, you name it, if it pops into their brain, they do it. They cannot inhibit!! The lack of this ability to inhibit results in behavior that looks like extreme distractability, lack of focus, attention deficits. OK, let's go back to the mom's letter - how long will this stage last?
One of my goals is to reach the teens (18 ms is great) for an extended amount of time - 3 days in a row is preferred for 10 minutes for kindergarten or younger - OK this age doesn't often reach the teens until they are a bit older, but we approach the teens, 15 to 20 minutes for 6-7 yr olds - this age can reach the teens at times, 30 minutes for 8 - 11 yr olds and over 60 yr olds, and finally for teens and adults the goal is 40 minutes. But every child is different and starts at a different place and needs to be treated differently - these are guide lines only. Students don't always reach that goal, especially if the child has bigger timing issues, lots of sensory challenges, is very young or has auditory processing issues. But I still ultimately want that quality of mental processing for your child if at all possible. Why? When children (and adults) reach this stage, the squirrellies (what I call this stage of neurological reorganization for the children) dramatically decrease. I think their entire sensory system settles down. At that point, they seem to dramatically increase in their ability to inhibit. They also have FEWER sensory impulses generated from a disorganized brain, so they have fewer impulses that they need to inhibit. For this boy, whose scores were above 150ms at the beginning, it would be inappropriate to expect the teens in just 15 sessions, and typically the sensory system will settle some on the way down there. You don't reach that optimal state until the teens though. Read more here about 20ms goal. If a child is not down there, but I think they could reach that goal, I just ask parents to revisit IM in a year or two, give the child and your schedule a break, but come back to finish up.
Same boy but it's 3 months later now and I'm updating this post. This child is on session 31 and last week he reached the low to mid 20's for 18 minutes! He ended the day with the comment - 'that was easy', pride beaming from his face - and many fewer itches, sways, cheering himself ,etc. He's not quite in the teens yet, but he's beginning to believe he can get there. He inhibited the emotional response of wanting to cheer himself on, and didn't even have all the sensory overload of earlier and remained very focused almost the entire 18 minutes. A big accomplishment for him. This was the first day he said it was 'easy' ! This boy has enjoyed IM all along - I try to offer lots and lots of encouragement and prizes, as IM is not 'easy' in reality. But, any thing that can change a person as quickly as IM has to be intense. As you practice and improve, you reach as stage where the mental processing become a subconscious part of you and it becomes 'easy'. He's approaching that stage now.
Let' go back 3 months ago, session 5 to 10 or so.This mom asked, "What can I do to help him through this stage?" Sometimes parents want to offer big rewards, but these don’t really seem to work the much with sensory impulses. The sensory impulses the child has during training is not something the students have a lot of control over – you can’t tell your brain, don’t itch…. You just get the impulse to itch, or the impulse to move your leg, or sway, etc… and you do it. In house I give sensory breaks or aid as needed to help the students find success. At home, you could check out sensory diet information that might be helpful for your child. Visit with an OT about your particular child for the best guidance here.
"Itching is the lowest level of pain." is what one of my adult nurses that went through IM said. She itched during IM, I itched, many of my students itch. Sometimes in house you don't see sensory overload but the family and school report squirrellies, atypical negative off the wall behavior, in those outside environments. Squirrellies - this is a somewhat painful stage for everyone involved. It too shall pass.
At school/home: It's not unusual for children to report grades going down during IM. Think about it, the child is first missing 4 to 6 hours of school each week, working their brains as hard as they ever have in their life, going back to school tired (you feel like you just finished taking a final), and often teachers don't lighten the load. Meanwhile, the child is working hard to build new more efficient mental pathways and overriding old less efficient ones. They go through a stage of confusion about which pathway should even be used? Their brain is disorganized for a while. They often are experiencing sensory overload and exhaustion, especially mid IM - just when teachers are getting tired of them missing so much classtime. My goodness, now this child can not focus worth a darn. Not an uncommon mid IM statement, but just get through it. Squirrellies, neurological reorganization, at home/school/ in house are all part of the program. Squirrellies look like bouncing off the wall, fast emotional swings, inability to focus at all or easily crying as if too tired.
Couldn't we avoid this? Not really, the child's brain is changing. You imagine yourself having to wear glasses suddenly changes how you see the world, earplugs that change how you hear the world, clothes made out of different fabric,or a diet that is unfamiliar - even though all these processes could be 'improved' - it sure feels different and makes you a bit irritable.You do get use to it in time and this irritable does get better. In the end, it's worth it. You can't change the brain that drastically and not see something. Though I do have some students who do not seem to have ANY negative responses, they are few - lucky ducks!
This squirrelly behavior is temporary but can be replaced with more autonomy - confusing. Squirrelly behavior is a sign that things are changing, a good thing. When a child can reach 18 ms for over 15 minutes, the in house itches, sways, impulses simply settle down. Or if they child does not make it that low, after IM ends their behavior simply settles down in the home and school environment as the child adjusts to their new sense of normal. Often when a child reaches the teens, they gain alot in confidence, self awareness, and independence, a result of greatly improved mental processing. Sometimes this increased self awareness and confidence takes the form of talking back, demanding their own way, sassy type behavior and leads the adults to believe the child is still experiencing the squirrelly stage. Analyze this, as much late training or post IM misbehavior has a different flavor, not so squirrelly (bouncing off the wall, lack of focus, emotional swings), but more autonomy showing, the terrible twos all over again. A negative positive gain. You want your child to be more confident, self assured, and independent - but they don't know how to do that appropriately. You need to teach assertiveness skills now. IM changes the brain, creating more confidence, but does not teach you how to appropriately apply that new self awareness and personal independence. I work on rewiring the brain, parents and teachers, you work on teaching the child how to be assertive with out being aggressive, OK :)
It takes a village :)
Click here for a video is of a little girl who had huge sensory issues.
Her clothing bothered her so much pre IM that she use to argue with her mom over what she would wear to school in the mornings. After a while in IM, her sensory system starting settling down. She reported that she didn't argue with her mom anymore and explained to me that, "Now, they are making clothes bigger, they aren’t as tight and uncomfortable." Though when I asked her about this she said that mom had not bought her any new clothes. Why were her clothes more comfortable now? Her sensory system had changed.
