From time to time, we get questions on how to use IM with specific populations, how to work with the equipment and anything else that is causing our Providers headaches. Amy Vega, a fabulous SLP and our Clinical Education Director, is here to answer those questions in a weekly series. Each week, we will address one topic in-depth that has plagued our Providers. So, be sure to check back here for all the answers to your questions. While you're at it, send in a question that has been on your mind. You never know who else it may help.

Ever wondered why so many children have SPD co-morbidity? Research suggest that our understanding of SPD may be flawed. Check out this new blog from Amy Vega, an awesome SLP and IM's Clinical Education Director. She explains how controlling inhibition could help children overcome SPD.

From time to time, we get questions on how to use IM with specific populations, how to work with the equipment and anything else that is causing our Providers headaches. Amy Vega, a fabulous SLP and our Clinical Education Director, is here to answer those questions in a weekly series. Each week, we will address one topic in-depth that has plagued our Providers. So, be sure to check back here for all the answers to your questions. While you're at it, send in a question that has been on your mind. You never know who else it may help.

Larry began to experience symptoms in September of 2007, including fasciculations that became more and more severe, difficulty manipulating his fingers especially when it was cold, and trouble with fine motor skills for tasks such as buttoning his shirt, tying his shoes, or snapping his fingers.  After working as a steel fabricator and crane operator for 35 years, Larry attributed his symptoms to “arthritis.”  However, over the next 2  1/2 years it became gradually more difficult to lift heavy objects, to do intricate work with his fingers such as threading a needle, and it eventually became difficult to write.  By the middle of 2009,   Larry began to notice muscle atrophy in his hands and forearms.  In March 25, 2010, after several EMGs and MRIs, Larry was given the devastating diagnosis of ALS.  

The Brain Clock:  The brain clock as a “jack-of-all-trades” brain mechanism that can be fine-tuned to improve human performance

In my inaugural IM-Home blog post (Brain Clock: My journey to understand the science of mental timing interventions), I concluded with the following statement:

“I am now convinced that the IM-effect is impacting a fundamental and critical cognitive mechanism (or set of mechanisms) involved in a wide array of human cognitive and motor performance domains.”

Cognitive and intelligence researchers have long sought for (and argued about) the “holy grail”of intelligence—an underlying core essence or mechanism that plays a role in most all intellectual and human performance situations.  It is typically referred to as g, or general intelligence.   The general consensus touches on the concept of neural efficiency.  Such a general mechanism or process is considered a domain-general cognitive mechanism as it works across multiple domains of human ability, or in other words...if you improve this one area of ability, it in turn improves several areas of ability in the same person like cognitive skills (focus, attention, memory), speech/language abilities (articulation, auditory processing, reading), and motor skills (coordination, gait, balance).   It works across multiple domains of human ability.  Some have referred to such general mechanisms...