The IM Home Edition is part of the Interactive Metronome group of products that focus on improving brain processing speed in order to improve attention, thinking, and learning speed.
Brain processing speed determines how quickly you notice information, take it in, organize it, think about it, determine its meaning, plan a response, and act on it.
When your child’s brain processing speed is below average it’s easy for them to fall behind in class because the teacher is presenting information faster than your child can understand, process, and act on it.
The Interactive Metronome improves processing speed that impacts attention, focus, and learning. Each student has a unique processing speed that is reflected in how easily they can learn. IM training can quickly improve the processing necessary for paying attention, processing information, and learning.
How Does Interactive Metronome Therapy At Home Work?
The IM program is a graduated series of movement and timing exercises done to a steady metronome beat heard through earphones with a computer at about one beat per second. As each beat is heard through headphones, the beat corresponds to a static image or video-game activity on the computer’s screen.
The student must make a specific movement with their hands, feet, or a combination of both in time with the ‘beat’. Immediately after the movement is recorded by hand and foot triggers, a specific auditory tone and visual feedback on the screen give feedback about whether that movement response was right on, too early, or too late.
The brain must learn to process the feedback instantaneously because the next tone comes up immediately after the feedback is presented. As your child progresses through the IM program, their processing speed improves and their accuracy increases.
The timing of each beat is set by the provider and can be adjusted for each child, which allows for the IM program to be used for almost any starting processing speed to help improve processing speeds over time without being too difficult at the beginning. After all, frustrating exercises can feel impossible to certain students, so we design a program that improves their processing speed gradually which makes it easier to notice improvement over time.
To give you an example of how much information must be processed we can look at how the training works per second. The training is designed to teach your child’s brain how to process information quickly which in turn improves processing speed for not only learning but for other areas of life where timing and processing is important, like playing a sport or musical instrument.
The program delivers a ‘beat’ in which your child makes a response with hand or foot triggers and then receives feedback indicating one of 5 possible timing categories. That means that in every second your child must hear and see a ‘beat’, make a movement response, and understand the feedback about the accuracy of that movement so they can adjust their movement on the next ‘beat’.
That whole sequence happens again the next second and the next second after that, repeating the feedback process for 38 total minutes of training during each IM session.
Interactive Metronome therapy can be done in a clinician’s office or at home with the IM Home Edition Training System. When designed by a well-trained IM provider, the training plan for both systems offers the same opportunity for improvement.
Benefits of Interactive Metronome At Home
Interactive metronome training teaches the brain how to process information faster. Over the course of the training, a strong processing framework is developed which in turn makes processing information independently in class much easier.
The IM Home Edition is just as effective as the in-office system and it has several advantages over training in a clinician’s office:
Convenience
- Your child’s timing assessment is completed from home using a zoom system with one of our licensed providers.
- Training at home gives you the convenience of easily fitting it into your busy schedule. IM training is most effective when it is done 5 days per week for the first 20+ sessions to lay the foundation for the next training steps. The most appropriate training plan might include a second month of training at 3 days per week to get the most benefit.
Effectiveness
- IM training is individualized for your child’s specific processing needs. The most successful training continues until a student achieves at least the ‘above average’ processing speed for their age. We recommend continuing training to what we refer to as the ‘gifted range’ so your child will get caught up more quickly and be able to process faster than the average student for their grade level.
- Most students can complete training in 30 – 60 sessions.
- Your child’s training plan is developed and adjusted as your child makes progress using the same backend system used for in-clinic training.
- The IM Home training equipment you receive is yours to keep. That means your child can continue training once the IM Home program goals have been met. This is a valuable tool because it can help kids who want more confidence continue to train to higher levels. A few IM sessions before a big event like the SATs or trying out for a sports team will help your child do their best. We recommend doing a few sessions at the end of summer to jump-start the learning process for the next grade level. At graduation from the Hardy Interactive Metronome Program, Hardy Brain Training adds extra sessions to your child’s account so you have lots of opportunities to continue training when your child wants an extra ‘boost’.
It’s important to have your training plan designed and adjusted by an experienced trainer. Look for the MIMC designation on the Interactive Metronome Provider Network to be certain that you have a master-level trainer to help your child.
If you think that interactive metronome may be helpful for your child but would like to understand more about how it works and how the Hardy Training Program works, we’d be delighted to discuss your child’s learning needs with you. Set up a consultation with Hardy Brain Training today to see if our Interactive Metronome Home Edition is the right fit for you and your child.