Interactive Metronome: 2 1/2 Years Later

My son did IM about three years ago and we did see handwriting improvements. Mostly we saw improvements in endurance—he used to wear out from the effort. Now my son does not still type very well (he is 12 now) and so he has had lots of practice at school.

So a couple thoughts. One is that his reliance on typing has basically not provided the opportunity for his increased capability (as measured in testing) to translate into better handwriting. I think the fact that his writing of numbers, which he has to do by hand, has improved suggests this may be the case.

But it is hard to know for sure because handwriting involves multiple skills. I have an article I fished out of my drawer that I’d be glad to fax to you that talks about all the different skills involved in handwriting, including orthographic coding (remembering what letters look like), visual perceptual skills, motor planning and execution, kinesthetic feedback, visual motor coordination. I know several years ago my son has seemed to have characteristics of all the deficits.

I think that IM helps most motor planning and execution. In my son’s case, I saw that the other difficulties didn’t seem quite as insurmountable once motor planning improved.

Now his handwriting is messy but I don’t think teachers have trouble reading it.

Can your son read his own writing? If he can, I would try and see if he can keep up with notes in class. What does he do now? If he prefers to use a lap top, maybe it is not worth changing.

Beth

PS I got the article off the web so maybe you can find it. It is called Graphomotor skills: why some kids hate to write: Things to know and how to help by Glenda Thorne

If he buys into it, I would definitely work on retraining handwriting. It is a very useful life skill. You have to approach it from the direction of retraining the *physical* skill, like a coach or physiotherapist.
I changed several letter formations as an adult and if you *want* to, it is just a matter of practicing the new skill.
Ask for my handwriting outlines if you are interested (other reading outlines also if you want.)
[email protected]

Beth,

Thanks for mentioning Glenda Thorne’s article. I came across it a few years ago but didn’t pay much attention to the orthographic coding part.
The definition sure fits: “ability to represent a printed word in memory and then to access the whole word pattern, a single letter, or a cluster in that representation”.

It would seem to me if a person had orthographic coding problems they would also have trouble typing. The person’s typing speed would be very slow because they are having trouble accessing the words. My son’s typing speed is fine.

I asked my son if he used his laptop to take notes and he said no because the battery gives out after 30 minutes. Sure wished he had told me this. He did say he wouldn’t use it anyway. He says he takes notes by hand. I asked him if he can read the notes. He said no. He does use his home computer for assignments.

the article does state that for children who have orthographic coding problems to tape the alphabeth line to their desk. This is exactly what we did 3rd-5th grade. I will research orthographic coding some more.

I am considering IM for my child. He did an assessment. He had some areas average, some low average, and some just way off the chart. (The hand/foot ones). I am hoping that I will not offend anyone with this question, but I’m trying to decide whether doing IM will be worth the time. I was wondering for those who have done IM before and saw improvement, how off average were the scores?

Helen,

My best guess with your child is that his handwriting issues are more bad habit than anything else at this point. He wasn’t capable of learning easily earlier on but by 9th grade his letter formation was well established.

My son did not change his letter formation following IM. We changed some of it doing Neuronet (handwriting exercises). As I said, we saw a big difference in endurance, which was a real problem for him. I also saw that he then developed the eye-hand coordination to copy off the board.

I also know from personal experience with my son that a lower level of difficulty can be made much worse by another problem such that a child cannot compenstate. Your son may have some level of orthographic issues but without the motor requirements of handwriting, it is not a major problem. Thus, he can type. Or it could be that he has trouble remembering the motor movements (visual motor) and that skill is not required by typing.

Beth

Always wondering,

All of my son’s scores were poor but some were much worse than others. His foot ones were closest to normal but were harder to improve than the hand ones. Hand and foot ones were highest.

I don’t think that answers your question.

I do know that I talked to IM people about doing a refresher for my son. I was asking about additional gains for very low scores. They told me that they now know that there can be attentional gains even for people whose scores are normal. (My son scored in the preferred range of under 20 after doing IM. Two years later he scored in the 70s—which is normal for untrained person. So the results “stuck”). I also know moms who have done it along side their kids who say that they are able to focus better and play tennis and other sports better.

What are you hoping to accomplish?

Beth

Beth,

I found the following article: Does a Visual-Orthographic Deficit Contribute to Reading Disability?
Annals of Dyslexia, Jun 2005 by Badian, Nathlie A

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3809/is_200506/ai_n13644137

From the article: “In this study, visual-orthographic skills were defined as the ability to recognize whether letters and numerals are correctly oriented. ”

My son fits the definition of having weak visual-orthographic skills. In 4th and 5th he scored in the <1% on being able to identify reversed letters from non-reversed letters. Interestingly, on this round of testing on the WIAT his word reading was SS 108 while his Reading Comp. was 125. It was noted had he would self-correct on the word reading but they take the first responce as the answer.

I”ve taught HS juniors & seniors handwriting (though most of them had been working on it since they came to the school), since it’s a mandatory part of the curriculum at TNCS (www.tncs.org). It can really make a difference - IMO the key is to do just a little every day, ‘cause it *is* tedious. There wasn’t a *whole* lot of debate, if I remember, about exactly which program to use, though I appreciated that the one we taught was based on learning the letters with similar ‘strokes.’
An awful lot of my guys had to do a lot of practice on that funky “c” and “o” stroke. Almost everybody had at least one part of the process that they’d just never learned.
http://www.global2000.net/handwritingrepair/ has more info about handwriting.
It can be tough, also, to make that transition from what you’re painstakingly practicing (sort of like drawing or painting) to what you automatically use when you’re trying to write. However, if you’re handwriting’s really rotten and there are motor issues involved, then the whole “automatically use” concept is a little different and that can make it easier.

Well, I guess the question is an empirical one: Given that he has visual-orthographic weakness will the improvements from IM in his motor skills provide enough of a foundation for him to be able to develop competence in handwriting?

I don’t think there is any way of knowing without trying. And whether to try depends mostly on your son’s motivation, given his age. I do know my son has retrained his writing of some of his letters using Neuronet so it is possible to learn new letter formations. I also know my son was much more teachable following IM.

Beth

Dear Beth from FL,

I guess the main thing I am trying to accomplish with IM would be to improve general processing speed, organization, and sequencing. I just want to choose the correct therapy that will give my son the most improvement based on the amount of his time and my money spent.

I’m also considering Balametrics to help with the brain integration/balance/sequencing issues.

He will be receiving vision therapy which includes in-office and at-home work. So, I want to be careful about any other therapy I choose at the present time since there is only so far you can stretch a person at a time.

Thanks for following up.

Always Wondering,

The first time I had my son tested for IM he was so off the charts that the therapist thought he needed to do some other more OT type therapy first. We did Neuronet therapy which incorporates balametrics in it. I then went back to IM and his scores were better, although still not good.

He made tremendous progress and I think it was because of the therapy we had already done. I was told by the therapist that the vestibular system affects the feet movements. So if you are considering Ballametrics and IM, I would probably do Ballametrics first.

Also, if your child has auditory processing issues at all, many therapists recommend The Listening Program before IM. We had done it already.

Also, don’t try to do everything at once. Just keep trudging.

Beth