Stroke and Brain Trauma Therapy
Stoke and Brain Trauma Patients Make Gains in Functioning
The Interactive Metronome program is designed to improve timing, coordination, motor planning and processing skills. The IM Program has been around for over 12 years.
It was developed in the early 1990s and immediately proved of great benefit to children diagnosed with learning and developmental disorders. The IM system is designed to improve timing, coordination, motor planning and processing skills; cognitive function with speech, thinking and staying focused.
Basically, it helps to rewire the brain, increasing dendrite density and facilitating the rate of transmission of information along the neural pathways.
Now, backed by years of clinical research, it is supported by prominent medical leaders in health care.
IM has gained national attention as a breakthrough intervention to help patients increase attention and concentration, motor control and coordination, language processing and control of impulsivity.
Within recent years, innovative therapists have discovered the positive effects that IM can have on patients with acquired neurological and motor interruptions. Rehabilitation hospitals and clinics now use IM in much the same way as their learning and developmental colleagues, to care for patients diagnosed with stroke, brain injury, balance disorders and Parkinson's Disease.
Interactive Metronome's application is so broad, because it measures and improves motor planning and sequencing, a critical part of the central nervous system.
The IM's Rehabilitation Technologies Division [RTD] was formed to enhance the traditional approaches to rehabilitation. The RTD recognizes that in order to achieve optimal outcomes and maximium recovery, IM rehabilitation technology should be utilized as an integral part of a wide variety of rehabilitative treatment plans.
The IM program works as a patient tries to synchronize hand and foot exercises to a computer-generated tone, heard through a headset. The computer calculates how many hits and misses the patient makes and gives the therapist and patient immediate visual and auditory feedback.
After completing a series of IM exercises, patients did functional tasks, like setting the table, filling the dishwasher, cooking, with increased ease. A patient remarked, "You find yourself doing things automatically, just doing them."
Nearly all stroke patients can benefit from the IM. Those with too much tone or tightness in an extremity can modify the process to achieve success.
The IM is not limited to stroke patients. It is useful for those with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, autism, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis, limb amputations, dystonia, balance disorders, as well as adults and kids with attention deficit disorder.
The IM is top of the line to help stroke patients as it enhances acute care. The sooner the patient gets treatment, the better. But even after a 20 year plus stroking, people can benefit from the therapy.
