electric mist

interactive metronome

If you have ADD / ADHD or you know someone who does -- ADULT OR CHILD, here's a new therapy that has worked wonders for our youngest son. (If your child has neurological or motor rehabilitation needs, go to this link instead.) (I am in no way affiliated with this; we simply benefited tremendously.)

Know who else is doing this? Some major sports players because it increases their focus, their sequencing skills, their timing, their coordination and thus, their game. Our interactive metronome therapist said several universities are starting to sign up their sports teams.

Four weeks ago, when I first insisted our son try the therapy, he went very begrudgingly. Very. When the therapist asked him why he was there, his answer? "Because my mom pays for my gas and I have to do this."

Four weeks later? I asked him how he felt about it, and he said this. (He's 18.)

"If anyone has the chance to do this therapy, they should do it. No doubt about it, it's made a big difference to me--a huge difference already."

I was floored.

They tested him prior to starting the therapy to see if he was even a candidate for it. The tests were math and reading tests on a computer where they can measure not only correct responses, but response time, sequencing, comprehension. Four weeks later, after doing the therapy, they re-tested him.

He had a dramatic 60% improvement.

He ended up doing much better at the exercises than his therapist had been able to do when she took the tests (multiple times) during her training. (Which tickled him.) And even though he noticed a big difference in the classroom, I've noticed a significant difference in loads of little things, like him not flying off the handle so easily, being able to reason with him, even when he's angry or frustrated, him being angry and frustrated far less often and even when he isn't pleased with something, being able to keep it in perspective. We've also noticed that we can give him much more complex sequencing tasks and feel more confident that he has them all without resorting to either writing everything down or reminding him a hundred times.

It was frustrating for me to watch him be so aggravated with the world because he really did forget things or get distracted in the middle of it and forget to go back to it or go do the next thing in the order he'd planned. And this was even for stuff he really wanted to do, so it wasn't him being rebellious. It harmed him more than us, and it was painful to watch because I understood it was something he had no control over. Meds helped temporarily, but he hated the way they made him feel, and while they may have helped him focus, they didn't help resolve the underlying problem

Even he is impressed with how much less he forgets to do things or is able to stay focused. I'm just thrilled that something worked.

My understanding it that once you've done this therapy (either 12 sessions or 15 sessions, depending, I think, on what your insurance will pay), you shoudn't ever have to do it again. If your insurances pays for speech therapy, it should pay for this. (I have no idea why it's listed under speech therapy because it really has absolutely nothing to do with speech and they in no way work with anything related to speech, but there ya go, the wonderful world of insurance.) Our insurance paid for 100% of everything after our deductible, which was way better than I had expected.

A major thank you to Tamar who found this therapy and sent me the link and encouraged me to learn more about it. The renowned Dr. Greenspan has endorsed it, so Google him and you'll see why that's impressive.

You can read on the link above exactly what it is and how it works, but be aware of this -- while the exercises may look simple or hokey in their demo? In reality, they are complex and difficult and we were surprised by that. However, they start very slowly and simply and work their way up in difficulty / complexity, so it's not something to scare anyone off... just don't blow it off based on their demo.

Posted by toni at October 24, 2004 04:11 PM