Our providers are truly passionate about helping their clients and utilizing Interactive Metronome. Take a moment to check out Sue Zapf, an IM provider who was recently featured on the “Let’s Talk” Podcast. She shares valuable insights about using IM, particularly for individuals facing learning challenges.
Listen to the full podcast now
We wanted to share two inspiring case studies with you about how Interactive Metronome (IM) has helped children improve their school performance. An 8-year-old boy named Matthew struggled with reading due to poor fluency and comprehension skills. After just two months of IM, his teacher noticed he began focusing better and wasn’t asking as many questions. Halfway through 3rd grade, Matthew’s reading comprehension level registered on the scale, and his handwriting skills improved too!
Similarly, a 13-year-old girl named Elyssa was diagnosed with Mild Intellectual Impairment and had trouble in school with understanding directions and focusing. After 6 weeks of IM training, her teacher reported that she was reading more fluently and confidently participating in classroom discussions. Elyssa was even able to test out of 2 of her Special Education classes!
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.
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.
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.
Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry. Every week, a new blockbuster comes out for Playstation or Xbox that is designed to pull users deep into a fantasy world filled with familiar characters, rewards and social accolades. But, can a 45 year old man playing the newest Madden title actually be helping his brain? Maybe. And so begins our series on video games and your brain.
It is that time of year, school time! Everybody has either gotten back to school or will be returning over the next few days, so we wanted to get some tips out to start of the new school year on the right foot. How can Interactive Metronome help prepare your child to succeed? Wendy Harron, an awesome OT and IM Provider, has the answers. Read more to find out how to get back in routine and practice skills with your children during the new school year.
Brain health and neuroplasticity have become all the rage. Lumosity commercials are a mainstay on cable television, often interrupting tv shows like Brain Games. There is no end to the options when it comes to brain training, but do any of these programs work? Scientist say yes, but there could be a catch. Read more to find out how IM’s unique and patented system challenges thinking and movement simultaneously, leading to long lasting improvements in functional brain networks.
By Hannah Guzik
Special to The Star
Posted August 23, 2012 at 4:05 p.m.
