Interactive Metronome
Interactive Metronome (IM) is an advanced brain-based treatment program designed to promote and enhance brain performance and recovery. The IM program ‘trains the brain’ to plan, sequence and process information more effectively through repetition of interactive exercises. This is accomplished by using innovative neurosensory and neuromotor exercises developed to improve the brain's inherent ability to repair or remodel itself through a process called neuroplasticity. Interactive Metronome (IM) is an evidence-based, cutting-edge neurological assessment and treatment tool.
It was developed in the early 1990s and first used to help children with learning and developmental disorders, such as:
- Sensory Integration Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Cerebral Palsy
- Learning Disorders
- ADD/ADHD
Interactive Metronome has been shown to improve:
- Attention & Concentration
- Motor Planning and sequencing
- Language Processing
- Working Memory
- Cognitive speed
- Behaviour – self monitoring and control
- Mental stamina
- Endurance
- Motor skills
How it works
The Interactive Metronome is a treatment program developed to directly improve the processing abilities that affect motor planning and sequencing.
The brain has an “internal clock” that keeps time and it does so at various intervals: microseconds, milliseconds, seconds, minutes, and hours. This timing in the brain or temporal processing is critical to speech, language and cognitive functioning. It is the basis for attention, working memory, and processing speed, all of which are critical for auditory processing, linguistic development, and reading achievement in children.
There is a growing body of literature describing the neural timing deficits in ADHD, dyslexia, autism, reading disorders, language difficulties, auditory processing disorder, and other conditions. By addressing timing in the brain with Interactive Metronome (IM) alongside functional therapy interventions, you not only address areas of ability that impact achievement and independence but also the heart of the problem, that of deficient neural timing within and between regions of the brain that are underlying many of the problems needing to be worked on in therapy. This leads to more efficient treatment and better overall treatment outcomes.
The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the patient to synchronise a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer-generated reference tone heard through headphones. The patient attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions.
IM's auditory-visual feedback engages the patient and provides constant feedback at the millisecond level to promote synchronised timing in the brain. Exercises are customised and involve a hierarchy of increasingly complex and precisely timed motor movements intertwined with gradually higher and faster cognitive processing, attention and decision-making.
Over the course of the treatment, patients learn to:
- Focus and attend for longer periods of time
- Increase physical endurance and stamina
- Filter out internal and external distractions
- Improve ability to monitor mental and physical actions as they are occurring
- Progressively improve performance
Learning Keys is the first company to be a qualified provider of Interactive Metronome in Adelaide.
