As a licensed and board-certified Occupational Therapist, Melissa Cordell has furthered her education and knowledge base by training in Interactive Metronome. This revolutionary technique allows you to fine-tune the way your brain receives and interprets information. Just like exercising to tone your other muscles, your brain deserves the same attention.

What is Interactive Metronome (IM)?

Interactive Metronome is an evidence-based therapeutic tool used to help increase neuro-timing in the brain. Our brain is made up of many different regions. In order to complete a task, several regions in our brain must “talk” and be “in-sync” with one another in order to work properly. When these regions communicate with each other, you are able to complete activities easily taken for granted such as reading a book, walking without falling, playing sports, focusing, processing language, and getting good grades. If neuro-timing is off or poor, we often see a deficit resulting in increased anxiety, inattention, poor adaptability, and decreased comprehension.

Benefits

Anyone that would like to increase academic proficiency, attention, processing, sports performance, and memory can benefit from Interactive Metronome. This technique has a wide range of benefits to include improvements in:

• Attention and concentration
• Memory and processing
• Reading and math
• Behavior and self-esteem
• Overall academic performance
• Handwriting
• Ability to follow instruction
• Sports-related performance

How Does Interactive Metronome Work?

Interactive Metronome uses a series of different movements to hit a desired trigger on a specific beat. Practicing different sequences allows clients to work on improving their neuro-timing. As millisecond accuracy is improved, neural efficiency is strengthened. Like in playing golf, lowering your score indicates an improvement of the brain’s ability to synchronize thought and movement. This means regions of your brain are communicating better!

Bringing Interactive Metronome Home

You can engage in Interactive Metronome practices right from your home! The IM home unit is connected to your home computer, consisting of an IM station, headphones, triggers, and downloaded software. The programming for each session is set up by a board-certified and licensed occupational therapist.

Sessions are completed 3 times per week over a 6-week course, with each session being 30 minutes long (1.5 hours a week). These sessions are scheduled on specific days in order to have accountability and track progress. Melissa, your coordinator, will see each session and can adjust the upcoming sessions accordingly. Exercise videos are on the IM home software so that you can see how the exercise is done prior to the completion of each task.

Interactive Metronome with Faithfully Guided Health Center

At Faithfully Guided, we have had clients ranging from pre-teenagers to over 80 years old. They have self-reported noticed improvements in concentration, social skills, and memory as early as halfway through the program.

At the end of the 6-week program, one client (81 years of age) was able to increase their cognition score from 0/5 to 3/5. Their pre to post-test ratings were as follows, rated on a scale from 1-10 (10 being the highest):

• Memory increased from 5 to 10
• Organizational skills increased from 2 to 8
• Concentration/focus increased from 3 to 5
• Multi-tasking ability increased from 3 to 7
• Rhythm/timing increased from 2 to 8

Interested in trying our Interactive Metronome program? Call our office at (352) 512-0631 or email melissa@faithfullyguided.com with any specific questions.