What, exactly, is Interactive Metronome, and who/what does it benefit?

[TheReader]

I'm sorry if I'm asking things that have been asked before, but I'm curious about this. 

 

My youngest son is almost 10, and has several learning delays -- dyslexia, probably auditory processing disorder, visual processing disorder, sensory processing disorder, and maybe an ADD component as well. We are just getting settled after our return to Texas, after 6  years in Brazil, so we are just hitting the point at which we are trying to figure out what therapies he needs, what further evaluations, etc. and in checking out things available locally, a "home school academy for special needs kids" mentioned they use this therapy. 

 

We were debating (are debating) the school, but as they use A Beka curriculum, "but adapted to each kid....", and one session of this Interactive Metronome, 2x a week, I am thinking it might be cheaper & just as effective if we instead find a provider just of the IM therapy and I just keep home schooling him, rather than switch materials, locations, schedule, etc., just to get the therapy. 

 

BUT, I'm just not finding tons of info about it, and would really feel better if I could hear from someone who has some experience. Anyone? 

 

It sounds good, and like it could be a great thing for him, but.....the skeptic in me wonders about it and has doubts. 

 

Thoughts? Links? Testimonials? Info? Anything? 

 

Thanks!

[PeterPan]

Yes, you can get an OT to do IM if you want to pay for formal IM.  Or you can weave it into things you're doing yourself.  Personally, I think it's way outdated to pay for formal IM at this point.  You have an ipad or something that can do apps (phone, kindle, anything) so get a free metronome app, use Heathermomster's instructions, and get hoppin.  

 

I remember some of your posts about being in Brazil and looking for stuff.  I agree you should NOT change what is working just to get IM, mercy.  My ds could not clap slowly to anything AT ALL.  Like he'd just go into this frantic hyper-clap.  He couldn't clap to music, to words, nothing.  My dd was easier and despite her lack of ability to keep time at least could slow down and clap.  With ds I started really basic, like asking him to clap with me *twice*.  I'd put my hands on his and clap slowly.  Then he'd go back to frantic hyper-clap.  Eventually we worked up to clapping with letters of the alphabet as I chanted them while we touched the letters.  None of this is with the metronome, just building up to it. 

 

I'm saying this is not rocket science and that you can, yourself, clap with him and see if he can even begin to slow down and clap with anything.  We built up a bit at a time (you clapped 3 A, B, C, so today let's clap with A, B, C, D).  Then, when he could do that, I started looking for activities to add it to.  We've been doing RAN/RAS work with colored dots, so once he had read those 4 times daily for a number of weeks I started adding in the metronome.  He couldn't stay with the metronome, but I just kept doing it with him.  Now he's not exactly with the metronome but he can correct if he messes up a word, pause, and get back with it.  It's a work in progress, kwim?  That's age 6 btw.  

 

So now he'll clap with the metronome a bit and work on it.  It's not like somebody else could have gotten there faster.  Well I guess you could have, but we can't do everything, mercy.  The price is right the way I'm doing it and we just keep slowly building it up.  He's not anywhere NEAR being able to do Heathermomster's IM homework, where dd at age 12 could just sit down and do it.  With her we did Heathermomster's instructions and then started adding in digit spans for working memory when she could do the base instructions.  At that point her writing took off.  That was free metronome work with an app and Heather's instructions and the $17 Cusamano workbook.  I was doing it with her and we got amazing changes.  We maxed out what wanted and were content.

 

With ds the most interesting change I've seen so far is his timing when he jumps on the running trampoline (tumbletrack) at gymnastics.  His whole timing was very off and uncoordinated, and when we started getting breakthroughs with the metronome his jumping also improved.  It was really basic stuff, like the ability to hop down this 30' long trampoline and looking like you could feel when you were going to land and time it right or jump and get your feet up, really basic things.  And since he has been doing this 2-3 days a week since May (with me in the peanut gallery watching every session), the improvements after we started metronome work were amazing.

 

I say do what you can for free and see where that gets you.  Or if you don't want to fiddle with it, find an OT. But at $110 an hour for OT vs. the hack home version for free, the hack home version starts to look really good...  Some of the sheets I've been adding metronome to are in the Focus Moves (S'cool Moves) ebook you can get on amazon for $10.  

 

These are the links to my RAN/RAS dot and digit page files.  Dropbox is free to use after you download the software. I can't promise I'll leave them in there, so if you want the files download them now.  They're pdfs.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l12eh937r9uh8ph/AABOSOFsItIm2z67LwkMVNbLa?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b3feozy4vbg3u7w/AACWTPyOIipZjfkWQqTHgWbua?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkfd8c6ylx5ceyw/AAA6qGQXdV5vh5AmLjlGsytKa?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zgab6805sob2wdf/AABdNlCdq68m5eoHGuvRiFela?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tscdgm59nhhh59/RAN%3ARAS%206%20Digits.pdf?dl=0

 

Focus Moves: Integrated Activities for Collaboration

 

Auditory Sequential Memory Instructional Workbook

 

Calling Heathermomster or another metronome guru - The Learning ...

 

 

 

[drjuliadc]

Interactive metronome is particularly good for Dyslexia. It has the component of feedback, which makes it better than the inexpensive versions of it. Some practitioners don't advise it before the age of 6 because of issues like OhElizabeth mentioned her son having with just basic metronome work. Developmentally, a perfectly neuro typical kid might not be able to follow the instructions well enough at age 5-6.

 

It is usually done in 1/2 hour sessions. If OT is covered by insurance, considering the age of your son, it would be worth a try, Cheapo metronome on your own is helpful too, just not AS potentially helpful as having the feedback.

 

I find OhElizabeth's insights and posts to be abundantly helpful.

[Heathermomster]

Never heard of IM until I took DS to the OT.  IM is supposed to help with attention, maths, and reading.  IM helped DS with sustained attention, but I feel like he needed more therapies in other areas first.  Now that you are back in the US, I would place a priority on everything else with IM in last place.  You can immediately work on the Focus Moves book that OhE mentioned.  

 

BTW, DS had IM homework for 20 minutes, 5 days per week plus he worked in the office with an OT one day per week.  IM is dry and boring as dirt.  I don't know why the school you are looking at is advertising IM and using it twice per week.  I just don't see the point.  There may be one.  I just don't know it.

 

With feedback, the student performs IM until they reach a specific age range and then they stop.  The local OT touted IM as something akin to riding a bicycle.  Once you learn it, you never forget.

[TheReader]

Never heard of IM until I took DS to the OT.  IM is supposed to help with attention.  IM helped DS but I feel like he needed more therapies in other areas first.  Now that you are back in the US, I would place a priority on everything else with IM in last place.  You can immediately work on the Focus Moves book that OhE mentioned.  

 

BTW, DS had IM homework for 20 minutes, 5 days per week plus he worked in the office with an OT one day per week.  IM is dry and boring as dirt.  I don't know why the school you are looking at is advertising IM and using it twice per week.  I just don't see the point.  There may be one.  I just don't know it.

 

With feedback, the student performs IM until they reach a specific age range and then they stop.  The local OT touted IM as something akin to riding a bicycle.  Once you learn it, you never forget.

 

The school would do it more often, but they have a 2-day/week, 3-day/week, 4-day/week, or 5-day week schedule available for students to attend, and we would only send him 2x/week. 

 

She did say he would then be priority for the IM as less than 2x/week would not help at all, really, and more is better. I assumed we would need to supplement in some way at home on the other days. 

 

The school was more advertised as a special needs supplement/academy, either full time or "home school version" where they come only a few times/week. But once I looked at the school, it seems less and less like a good fit -- I cannot fathom continued good results with his reading, if they ditch the curriculum we landed on as a good fit, and switch to a NT curriculum, no matter what they add to it/how differently they implement it. So then I thought, well, if the main thing extra is this IM stuff, let me look into that.....

 

Anyway. So, you think do all the other evaluations we need first??

 

He gets speech/language therapy, and we'll continue that. He was suggested to need auditory processing evaluation, visual processing evaluation, ADD check, and OT for the dysgraphia issues & sensory processing issues. So, start there, huh? I guess that makes sense. 

 

Thanks! 

[Heathermomster]

Interactive metronome is particularly good for Dyslexia. It has the component of feedback, which makes it better than the inexpensive versions of it. Some practitioners don't advise it before the age of 6 because of issues like OhElizabeth mentioned her son having with just basic metronome work. Developmentally, a perfectly neuro typical kid might not be able to follow the instructions well enough at age 5-6.

 

It is usually done in 1/2 hour sessions. If OT is covered by insurance, considering the age of your son, it would be worth a try, Cheapo metronome on your own is helpful too, just not AS potentially helpful as having the feedback.

 

I find OhElizabeth's insights and posts to be abundantly helpful.

 

OP, with IM the student wears headphones. A signal will beep in either the right or left ear to indicate altering the clapping pace to match the 54 BPM metronome.  While that was happening, the OTs would do things to distract my son.  You mentioned possible APD and sensory issues.  Given the nature of your child's issues, he may not tolerate IM well, so that is something you would need to discover.

[TheReader]

OhElizabeth, thank you!!! Downloading the docs you posted. We do RAN work with him as well, so that will be good to have. 

 

I think he has decent rhythm as relates to music and such, he is pretty good at mimicking songs and things, but his speech patterns get very sped up sometimes (his speech therapist often has him tap the table with each syllable or each word, as a means of pacing himself), and he just has zero concept of time, at all. He doesn't notice time passing, really, so lunch takes him by surprise, every single day. Then dinner, same thing. Then bedtime, same thing. He sets a timer for many things, to help keep track, but....if this could help with that, that would be nice. 

 

I'll look into these at home activities. I do think insurance would cover the OT for him, though, so might not be so bad to let a professional figure out the plan....

[TheReader]

OP, with IM the student wears headphones. A signal will beep in either the right or left ear to indicate altering the clapping pace to match the 54 BPM metronome.  While that was happening, the OTs would do things to distract my son.  You mentioned possible APD and sensory issues.  Given the nature of your child's issues, he may not tolerate IM well, so that is something you would need to discover.

 

they mentioned that at the school; my thought at the time was, I doubt he would be in tune enough to what he hears (while concentrating so hard on the other stuff) that he would notice the sounds, or which ear it was....it seemed like a lot for him to keep up with, focusing on clapping correctly, then having to hear and know L means too slow, R means too fast (or that's how she described it to me), and then to make changes. And with them distracting him, too......that would be very likely to frustrate him, greatly. 

 

Thanks for explaining! 

[Arctic Bunny]

I'm sorry if I'm asking things that have been asked before, but I'm curious about this.

 

My youngest son is almost 10, and has several learning delays -- dyslexia, probably auditory processing disorder, visual processing disorder, sensory processing disorder, and maybe an ADD component as well. We are just getting settled after our return to Texas, after 6 years in Brazil, so we are just hitting the point at which we are trying to figure out what therapies he needs, what further evaluations, etc. and in checking out things available locally, a "home school academy for special needs kids" mentioned they use this therapy.

 

We were debating (are debating) the school, but as they use A Beka curriculum, "but adapted to each kid....", and one session of this Interactive Metronome, 2x a week, I am thinking it might be cheaper & just as effective if we instead find a provider just of the IM therapy and I just keep home schooling him, rather than switch materials, locations, schedule, etc., just to get the therapy.

 

BUT, I'm just not finding tons of info about it, and would really feel better if I could hear from someone who has some experience. Anyone?

 

It sounds good, and like it could be a great thing for him, but.....the skeptic in me wonders about it and has doubts.

 

Thoughts? Links? Testimonials? Info? Anything?

 

Thanks!

No advice, just wanted to say a big HELLO!!!!!!!!

[Heathermomster]

they mentioned that at the school; my thought at the time was, I doubt he would be in tune enough to what he hears (while concentrating so hard on the other stuff) that he would notice the sounds, or which ear it was....it seemed like a lot for him to keep up with, focusing on clapping correctly, then having to hear and know L means too slow, R means too fast (or that's how she described it to me), and then to make changes. And with them distracting him, too......that would be very likely to frustrate him, greatly. 

 

Thanks for explaining! 

My guess is that a good IM provider would adjust the therapies to the student.  If you take your child to an SIPT qualified OT, you could discuss IM with them.  IM might become part of some sort of long term therapy plan.

[PeterPan]

On the feedback, there is an app (Clapbox?) that gives you that feedback.  I agree, still not as precise as the formal IM system is, but our options are increasing.  I did Clapbox some with dd.  To me, and this is just my opinion, what gave the real life carryover was combining the effort to keep to the metronome with the other motor planning tasks of the thing I was trying to improve.  I wanted her writing to improve, so my thinking was motor planning plus working memory plus expressive language plus EF for organization.  In that way I had all the components necessary for writing.  That's when her writing took off.  

 

It's interesting to ponder what added benefit working on the *precision* of the timing would have.  It would be a different effect.  I'm guessing they have research on that.  Might improve attention, hmm.  It's just things we can ponder.

 

And yes, other people I've talked with did IM as part of an overall OT session, so maybe 10 minutes of IM midway and then another 10 minutes later.  With dd I did 20 minutes straight, daily.  With ds it's just a few minutes on the days when we do the OT stuff.  That's interesting that there are minimum age recommendations.  It makes sense.  Even so, I don't think ds' issues with the clapping are developmentally typical, if that makes sense.  I don't think waiting would have made them go away.  He has glitchy things like that.  He also can't hit or hear notes for music.  So much of our church culture involves music, so I'm VERY concerned this would discourage him from attending eventually.  It's next on my hit list to figure out how to help him hear notes.  Right after I get done worrying about whether my dad is passing out in his apartment from his surgery, whew.  He's ok, but what a morning!

 

That's always the challenge to me, to figure out whether my hack attempt at home is enough better or missing something.  I know my OT efforts at home aren't helping fine motor.  I'm hoping to get scholarship funding to make that happen.  Not everybody has scholarships and money from heaven just dropping in, so that's where it's nice to have those options.  The OT I used with dd I found through the IM site.  She was fine and did a great eval for us, taught us a lot, but she was SO hairbrained that I finally stopped the sessions.  At that point it was my hack version was better than no version, kwim?  And I was pleasantly surprised to find I *could* make some serious headway.  It's nice to have options. And you have basic things to like whether the parent wants to, feels comfortable, compliance by the child, etc.  Therapy that gets done is better than not done.  Just giving options.  :)

[PeterPan]

I agree, you don't want to change academics when you've got a mix that is working, oy.  And you can get an OT to do the IM, meaning you don't need to send him to school just for that.  I'm sure you had other reasons, just tossing out your options.

 

Ok, here is my two cents of what I see in your comments.  You know he needs an OT eval, so you need to do that.  You can look on the IM provider list and cross-reference that with SIPT or someone who does a longer sensory eval.  That way you've got one person who is knowledgeable to do both.  

 

Now the way the OT will say is they want to do OT for a while before they start IM.  Whatever.  OT's are awesome, but you're also their cash cow.  The metronome app is FREE.  Get it and start today with Heathermomster's instructions.  Just see what happens and where you're at.

 

His sense of time isn't actually quite the same.  My rhythm is ok (supposedly, dd thinks it's not) but my sense of time is nil, utterly nil.  There are some things you can supposedly do to help, like turning on a stopwatch and having him get a feel for how long short units of time are.  It's just something to do a board search or google, developing a sense of time.  I think you might find you need to do *both*.

 

That's a challenging situation when you have a variety of things going on.  It doesn't *hurt* to start some metronome work and see what happens.  You might learn something about where he's at and it costs you nothing.  You can make dramatic, dramatic changes in 6 weeks, and it will take you 6 weeks to find an OT and get in.  There's no need to sit around and wait.  If you want, try it today.  If you find an OT who does IM, they can just take it farther and build on what you've done.  

[PeterPan]

My guess is that a good IM provider would adjust the therapies to the student.  If you take your child to an SIPT qualified OT, you could discuss IM with them.  IM might become part of some sort of long term therapy plan.

My memory isn't the best, but I think IM was the one where I researched it and when I called around almost NOBODY was highly complimentary.  Now you know *I* am because I'm forever saying to do it.  But I'm just saying I called many providers from the list in a large metropolitan area and over and over again I got comments about results not sticking, the practitioner no longer doing it because they weren't getting results, etc.

 

That's, again, why I figured if I used my brain and knew why *I* was doing it I MIGHT get results.  Or at least I couldn't do any worse than these other people who had paid for the $$ equipment, been trained, and weren't getting results.  

 

I really think the practitioner and the logic of the combinations matters more than whether you use $$ headphones and get perfect-o feedback.  

 

So my take from that is find a practitioner who seems very well thought out about WHY they're doing what they're doing.

[PeterPan]

My guess is that a good IM provider would adjust the therapies to the student.  If you take your child to an SIPT qualified OT, you could discuss IM with them.  IM might become part of some sort of long term therapy plan.

Some of the popular OT providers in the big city near us now advertise metronome work as part of their therapy approach.  This is in practices targeting autism.  They're not saying IM, but IM is just the specific equipment.  

 

Fascinating stuff!

[LaughingCat]

I think it would be pretty easy to do some basic metronome work while you were researching more. You can do pretty much anything to a metronome - read words (paper on wall), skip count,  say the days of the month etc.    For my DD far beyond the age of 6 it was pretty much impossible for her to do anything to a beat.  Something that beeped to tell her she was 'off' beat would not have been useful at all.  I had to start her with jumping on a trampoline (counting by one's) and then worked up to dribbling a very large ball (so slower than regular dribbling) - to give her tactile feedback on being 'off' - before she was able to start following a metronome.   If your DS doesnt' struggle with things like that then I wouldn't think that IM would necessarily be worth it.  

 

Also that Bal-a-vis-x that OhElizabeth talks about on a different thread is very beat oriented (ball bouncing) -- I have had DD doing that lately (based on googling - haven't bought the book) and I like it a lot.  

[PeterPan]

The BalavisX guy has videos on his website, so it's worth your time to watch them and see it done before trying.  It's sort of esoteric and theoretical.  

 

The overall theory is that working on midline (with BalavisX, with Focus Moves, etc.) gets the brain to pick a side for the language and move forward with language development.  So there are definitely language reasons to do all this.  BalavisX was hard for *me* to implement and it's one I'm going to be happy to let the OT do more of when we get funding.  The parts we did were worthwhile and it definitely was what gave the breakthrough on his ability to wipe.  (He had proprioception issues with anything behind him.)  The value for the rhythm would be sort of theoretical.  You'd have to be able to carry it over at home to get that benefit.  To me the metronome work is more powerful with that because you can combine it with so many more tasks.  

 

Laughing Cat, are you saying you're having him actually bounce balls, like basketball?  I was thinking about that yesterday, wondering how he'd do.  You'd definitely have to have your sense of timing to get that.  I remember not being very good at it for a number of years, lol.  I think it's helpful to stagger things and use one activity to build a foundation for the next.

[LaughingCat]

The BalavisX guy has videos on his website, so it's worth your time to watch them and see it done before trying.  It's sort of esoteric and theoretical.  

 

The overall theory is that working on midline (with BalavisX, with Focus Moves, etc.) gets the brain to pick a side for the language and move forward with language development.  So there are definitely language reasons to do all this.  BalavisX was hard for *me* to implement and it's one I'm going to be happy to let the OT do more of when we get funding.  The parts we did were worthwhile and it definitely was what gave the breakthrough on his ability to wipe.  (He had proprioception issues with anything behind him.)  The value for the rhythm would be sort of theoretical.  You'd have to be able to carry it over at home to get that benefit.  To me the metronome work is more powerful with that because you can combine it with so many more tasks.  

 

Laughing Cat, are you saying you're having him actually bounce balls, like basketball?  I was thinking about that yesterday, wondering how he'd do.  You'd definitely have to have your sense of timing to get that.  I remember not being very good at it for a number of years, lol.  I think it's helpful to stagger things and use one activity to build a foundation for the next.

 

Yes, I had her dribble balls the same as you would bounce a basketball - the only thing is she started with bouncing a fitness ball (the huge kind you would sit on) because it was so big and slow that she was actually able to dribble it (vs. a basketball).

ETA: I didn't just think 'start with the fitness ball' - I started her with a basket ball, and then when she couldn't handle that I had her try all sorts of balls until we found one that worked (she actually suggested trying the fitness ball)

2nd eta: My whole idea was to make it very obvious to her whether she was keeping to a rhythm - when you open hand dribble you either get it right or you don't - there is no confusion on whether you were 'close enough' or not - same for jumping on a trampoline and saying math facts - it's very clear if you had to jump twice before you got the fact out.  ' At the same time it still allowed some 'slack' around being exactly on the beat or not

 

Also, it is true the beginning exercises of the BalavisX does not give the kinesthetic metronome effect that dribbling does - the later exercises with two balls are about right for the next level for her though. ETA: I mean the 2 ball and the 2 person 4 ball exercises require more specific timing the 1 ball exercises don't

[drjuliadc]

I think a lot of people need the do it yourself info because therapies are expensive. That is why I think your posts are so great. A mom, or dad, is going to have so much more time with a child than a therapist anyway.

 

Interactive metronome is very well thought of in the chiropractic neurologist arena, but if a chiropractor can't afford to buy one for their office they will use a regular $30 one and do the hack methods too.

 

Brain/ balance centers, the franchises that we're started by a prominent chiropractic neurologist, Robert Mellilo, use IM extensively. They remediate primitive reflexes first though.

 

About 1/2 of my patients have insurance that would cover IM, so for a lot of people it would be worth a try. It is good for pretty much anyone with a brain.

[PeterPan]

I think a lot of people need the do it yourself info because therapies are expensive. That is why I think your posts are so great. A mom, or dad, is going to have so much more time with a child than a therapist anyway.

 

Interactive metronome is very well thought of in the chiropractic neurologist arena, but if a chiropractor can't afford to buy one for their office they will use a regular $30 one and do the hack methods too.

 

Brain/ balance centers, the franchises that we're started by a prominent chiropractic neurologist, Robert Mellilo, use IM extensively. They remediate primitive reflexes first though.

 

About 1/2 of my patients have insurance that would cover IM, so for a lot of people it would be worth a try. It is good for pretty much anyone with a brain.

It hadn't occurred to me an OT might be doing without the IM unit because of the $$ issue, hmm.  

 

So how are chiros creating their activities to do with the metronome?  See that's what fascinated me was how you could combine and create custom effects.  Is there a book of recommended activities that come with the IM unit/training?  Do they pretty much all do one list of activities or do they develop their own?  And what do they use to guide them in that?

[drjuliadc]

You do whatever the person is bad at. (My mother would be very upset with me for ending a sentence with a preposition). That sums up a lot of what chiropractic neurologists do. It is very different from what OTs do, but the chiro neuros steal a lot from anyone who has anything good, wisely, I think. They have their own paradigm to apply things to. (I just can't stop doing it, preposition thing, I mean). I mean "steal" in a good way.

 

I am not a chiropractic neurologist. I took all of the courses for children and then had one, adopted one and stopped going to seminars. It was about 125 hours of training. You think therapy is expensive.

 

Glen Doman P.T., was commonly referenced in the training, and perhaps Robert Doman. I have found much of the Domans' information without going to seminars and it fascinates me. I use it a lot with my neuro typical children and it blows me away. I say neurotypical, but treating brain damage is a growth industry, sadly, and we all have neurological inefficiencies that can be improved.

 

Reading either of Robert Melillo's two books for laypeople would be a great outline of what chiro neuros do for kids. He has an excellent book for practitioners. It was over my head, but still wonderful, so I don't recomend it for laypeople.

[Esse Quam Videri]

Found it OhE! But it says the files have been deleted or moved?

[PeterPan]

This link should work for the RAN/RAS dot pages.  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4rcl6f0uo70esmv/AAAaGAHw3_YTMEQZSw_WI-t_a?dl=0

[ghcostafamily]

So what brand of metronome do you suggest? Should I start with the iPad free one first, and see how it goes? My daughter is getting tested soon for dyslexia, and plays piano. I think this could really help her. Is there a basic starting beat? Just start with hand clapping or skipping a beat in between and then clap?

[Terabith]

I'm currently tutoring a child who almost certainly has dyslexia at a private school that uses ABeka.  They're a tiny school, progressing at their own pace, blah blah blah.  It is SO inappropriate for her; it's not even funny.  ABeka is a "throw a million things at the kid at the same time" curriculum.  I'm looking at this girl and thinking she's a poster child for Barton, but we're trying to shoe horn her through this curriculum that is not at all appropriate for her, even three years behind her grade level.  Even some other NT curriculums would be better for her than this.  Spalding wouldn't be as good as Barton, but it would be infinitely better.  Heck, she's got a good visual memory, so even a more sight word based curriculum would be better for her than this.  I'm just saying, I would never, in a million years, switch from something that is working to something like ABeka (which will NOT), to get IM, which might be good but also might be pretty worthless.  Not saying it isn't worth it to try it in an OT's office if they suggested it.  It might be great.  But I wouldn't prioritize it over school curriculum that is working.  No way. 

[Heathermomster]

I'm currently tutoring a child who almost certainly has dyslexia at a private school that uses ABeka.  They're a tiny school, progressing at their own pace, blah blah blah.  It is SO inappropriate for her; it's not even funny.  ABeka is a "throw a million things at the kid at the same time" curriculum.  I'm looking at this girl and thinking she's a poster child for Barton, but we're trying to shoe horn her through this curriculum that is not at all appropriate for her, even three years behind her grade level.  Even some other NT curriculums would be better for her than this.  Spalding wouldn't be as good as Barton, but it would be infinitely better.  Heck, she's got a good visual memory, so even a more sight word based curriculum would be better for her than this.  I'm just saying, I would never, in a million years, switch from something that is working to something like ABeka (which will NOT), to get IM, which might be good but also might be pretty worthless.  Not saying it isn't worth it to try it in an OT's office if they suggested it.  It might be great.  But I wouldn't prioritize it over school curriculum that is working.  No way. 

The thread is nearly 3 years old.  I'd be curious to discover how everything panned out.

[Heathermomster]

So what brand of metronome do you suggest? Should I start with the iPad free one first, and see how it goes? My daughter is getting tested soon for dyslexia, and plays piano. I think this could really help her. Is there a basic starting beat? Just start with hand clapping or skipping a beat in between and then clap?

The metronome was set at 54 BPM.

 

Dyslexia is handled by using a reading program that is systematic, explicit using direct, multisensory instruction.  IM is used to help attention and increase digit spans.  My DS was NP tested 1 prior and 2 years after IM, and there were no measurable effects.

[TheReader]

The thread is nearly 3 years old.  I'd be curious to discover how everything panned out.

 

We never tried the metronome stuff, and between this original posting and now, he finally came to the top of the autism evaluation wait list (negative/they say no autism), we switched to Barton, we're most of the way through Level 3, and last week he picked up an adult book, on his own, for fun/to pass the time while waiting on me. I was floored.  (note: he was slowly reading one page, but the point is that he chose to try to read a book over anything else).

 

He finished/graduated from speech/language therapy, then we had him with a different therapist working on social skills/anxiety/becoming more self aware of things like getting upset, how to talk to other people, etc. (suggested by the autism eval) and he graduated from that too. 

 

We stuck with our once/week co-op/home school enrichment that we've been doing, and he takes his history & science there, but mainly goes for the lunch & recess hour (seriously; we consider it social skills therapy, lol!) and this year he has a weekly playdate with a friend after class, too. 

 

He's in the grade level appropriate classes this year (last year we kept him in the younger classes), and doing really well. 

 

We have still never done official OT; the speech/language therapist said she saw no reason to do the auditory processing evaluation; right now he's progressing really well, so I'm happy with what we have done/are doing. 

 

thanks for asking :) 

[Lecka]

Wow, awesome update!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for sharing :)

[exercise_guru]

I wanted to post because we were unable to afford interactive metronome. Instead I ask my sons guitar teacher to extend the lesson and do some drum percussion work. In a month I have seen my sons rhythm improve significantly  doing drum work with a Djembe and other simple percussion instruments.  It is also so much more fun. We used a rhythm book and a vibrating metronome attachment. At first my son could not keep any time at all but now we are even doing 6/8 time. I always have him do the counting and I follow along so that he continues to improve. 

 

I had also looked into Intime by the listening program but there was not a good therapist that would meet my sons needs. If this continues I plan on finding a percussion teacher to further extend his drumming abilities. I am learning a lot to and for 90 bucks a month plus the instrument it is a very cool way to help my son with timing of the brain. This was something the audiologist felt strongly about. plus its super hip for a boy. 

[drjuliadc]

That sounds awesome and fun.

 

There is also Brainbeat, which is a cheaper type of interactive metronome device that I heard about from other chiropractic neurologists who were happy with it. It’s $250 if I remember correctly. I’ve heard the games are more fun than interactive metronome. IM isn’t that fun so that wouldn’t be hard.

[exercise_guru]

Wow you made my day. I am going to go look up BrainBeat  the home model for IM was crazy expensive. I will have to see if I can save up for it. Do you think that there are enough games to do the system for 30 minutes 5 days a week for 2-4 months? This is what the IM studies claim is needed to get results. They were saying that 10,000 repetitions were needed to "Retime the brain"

 

This is why I went with percussion. It was far easier to get my son to use hand drums and percussion instruments than drive him to yet another therapist and pay money I couldn't afford. This would very much pair with what we are doing now and help get those repetitions up with the biofeedback element we are missing. Right now we train our ear and our metronome feeling but we don't have that feedback to get on beat. 

 

Do you know if it is a sound beat they are supposed to match or just a visual element?

[drjuliadc]

I felt different after using the interactive metronome one day. It was a long day and I used it a lot that day. It was when I took the training for it. Everyone had a partner and switched off, but there were an uneven number of people in the course so I did the training twice as much as anyone else. I don’t know if it was lasting, didn’t feel like it, but it was dramatic.

 

I wouldn’t recommend anyone doing that, haha. I was really tired after that.

 

IM is repetitive. It is up to the therapist or practitioner to change it up. I have a 10 year old version of IM so it might be different now. If you could do IM repeatedly I’m sure you could do something more fun at least as frequently.

 

The feedback really is quite a powerful aspect. Interestingly though, something like catching a ball has feedback too. If your timing isn’t right you don’t catch the ball. BalavisX may be partly working similarly to IM because of the built in feedback involved in catching a ball.

 

Besides the feedback, the IM records how you do and makes a graph for the therapist to review. I found that very helpful to help direct therapy. Some people are just awful with their feet and good with their hands or vise versa. Some have a big right/left discrepancy. Working the weak areas gets the biggest gains. Being consistently ahead of the beat means something different than being behind the beat too.

 

I don’t know if Brainbeat records results of sessions to be able to analyze.

[drjuliadc]

The IM beat is sound and visual and I assume Brainbeat is too. That would probably be easy to find out looking at their website. I haven’t seen Brainbeat in person, just heard about it.

[PeterPan]

Yes, BalavisX, properly implemented, is going to have a timing component and the auditory plus visual plus kinesthetic input. If they do it with someone who is really good at it (not me, haha, because I'm a klutz but someone good), you get multiple balls going and have the whole timing gig. It also really helped with my ds' proprioception *behind* him, because you're putting your hands behind your back. It's supposed to have mild help with auditory processing.

 

A lot of stuff is voodoo vague in effect. BalavisX was fine but not like super wow. Metronome work where you really get to a therapeutic level, targeting stuff, that was really wow here. I think the feedback is less important than the EFFORT at coordinating the info. It's more important that they TRY to do motor planning will processing while using language while using timing and working memory, than it is to get the feedback. The feedback would be great. We used Clapbox a bit. It would be helpful and fine, but when you're talking free vs. $$$ and people can't make the $$$ happen, the free approach can be really, really worthwhile. For my dd, it got us astonishing breakthroughs and cost NOTHING.