National Time Management Month is celebrated during February each year. February is the perfect month to focus on time management skills with your clients. Time management is not as complex or difficult as it seems. When children learn time management early in life, they tend to do so for the rest of their lives. Time management in students helps them achieve their academic and recreational goals. It also teaches them to be independent and productive.
Children diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have difficulty staying on task and staying organized, all of which can make time management challenging. This is because of the way the brain tends to process things when a person is living with ADHD.
Dr. Susan Zapf is an Occupational Therapist and Assistive Technology Professional with over 27 years of experience working with the pediatric population in both private practice and the school-based settings. She is an entrepreneur and is the Owner and Clinical of The Children’s Therapy Center, Inc., a prominent pediatric sensory integration clinic in Houston, Texas. Dr. Zapf is also the Owner and President of Children’s Journey to Shine, Inc, an educational training company that educates healthcare professionals on assistive technology assessment and service delivery and provides therapy services that utilize animals and nature as tools in therapy. Dr. Zapf is the President of Reining Potential of Texas, a non-profit organization that uses the horse in occupational therapy services. Dr. Zapf is adjunct faculty for the Ph.D. Pediatric Science track at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah, and teaches a course on assistive technology. As an occupational therapist, she is passionate about helping children and their families develop skills to reach their full potential and she believes that occupational therapy, assistive technology, and animals can be powerful interventions to assist in this process.
Now that you have settled into the new year, have you set professional goals for yourself?
Professional goals are the actionable steps you need to take to grow in your career. Ask yourself that elusive job interview question: “where do you see yourself and your career in five years?”, then build your goals from there. Below are 3 professional development goals where Interactive Metronome may be of help.
9-year-old Anna has been diagnosed with ADHD and has difficulty focusing and is easily distracted. She showed signs of moodiness, was easily bored, and had emotional breakdowns. After completing 14 sessions and 20,000 repetitions of Interactive Metronome, Anna's family noticed she was taking better initiative with significant improvement in her temper tantrums. They also reported Anna was learning better ways to study, which ultimately led to her receiving A's and B's in school.
Ash refused to let Autism Spectrum Disorder rule his life, learn how his grades and behavioral patterns greatly improved after training with Interactive Metronome.
Ash, a 10-year-old boy diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, didn’t typically struggle with his academics but had the tendency to speak out of turn, chew on his clothing or other items he found around him, and had trouble keeping his hands to himself which was often reflected in on his daily report card. After trying other modalities with no improvement, IM was introduced. Ash struggled getting used to the headphones and the rhythm but was excited to try this “new computer game with clapping”. Being a perfectionist, Ash refused to give up and wanted to do better. After months of IM training, he was able to meet his IM goal and it showed not only on his report card but with his abilities to stay on task in class and even lead his gym class in their warm-up exercises.
Dr. Nina Kraus leads a diverse team of researchers and clinicians at The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory (Brainvolts) as they investigate the way brains process sounds, finding that auditory ability is a strong indicator of brain health.
Brainvolts has discovered how to measure the biology of auditory processing with unprecedented precision. Together they extend science beyond the laboratory to schools, community centers, and clinics.
Using the principles of neuroscience to improve human communication, the Brainvolts team advocates for best practices in education, health, and social policy.
Brain injuries are very different than any other injury because our brain stores all of our memories, controls our movements, and shapes our personality; the brain is truly the essence of who we are. Brain injuries often lead to multiple complications, such as seizures, coma, fluid and pressure in the skull, infections, nerve damage, blood vessel damage, and cognitive deficits that can result in behavioral and emotional changes. Individuals often find that they have trouble with memory, problem-solving/decision-making skills, attention, language/speaking, writing, impulse control, anxiety, depression, balance, and hand-eye coordination. Learn how Interactive Metronome®can help brain injury sufferers by working to physiologically change the functional brain networks that control rhythm and timing.
The benefits of music are wide-ranging and well documented. From teaching empathy and improving memory and concentration, to helping track time and easing emotions, music can change the life of a child with ADHD. Here, learn how lyrics, rhythm, melody, and tempo work their magic.
In this first study of its kind, Bonacina et al. provide evidence for how rhythmic skills interconnect and develop in school-age children. Of particular interest is the finding that children who clapped to a beat during the Interactive Metronome (IM) condition, while receiving feedback for millisecond timing, demonstrated the least variability in their synchronization and performed better on all of the other rhythm activities evaluated. Rhythm is complicated, there are several rhythm intelligences, and IM alone impacts all of the vital rhythms that are so important to the development of language and literacy.
Steven is a 9-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia. He and his mother were very concerned with his academic performance due to his trouble with processing and writing output. IM training was introduced to help Steven overcome his timing, handwriting and coordination skills. After 3 months of IM training, the distractions were now easy to “tune out” and his handwriting skills had improved tremendously, both Steven and his mother feel hopeful and confident as he begins his 4th-grade year!
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