What is Sensory Integration?
The human brain's efficiency and performance depend on the seamless transition of neuronetwork signals from one area of the brain to another. Sensory Integration Dysfunction is the inability of the brain to correctly process information brought in by the senses.
Sensory Integration Training for ADD/ADHD
In a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 95% of teachers believed that untreated ADHD affects school performance, and 90% of those teachers also believed that untreated ADHD negatively impacts socialization and that children with untreated ADHD tend to be disruptive in the classroom. Children diagnosed with learning or developmental disorders, including ADHD, tend to demonstrate:
- Poor reading and listening comprehension
- Poor verbal expression
- Poor organizational skills
- Poor memory
It is widely recognized among therapists and educators that there is a correlation between the neurological functions of motor planning and sequencing and critical aspects of human development, including thinking, organizing and coordination.
When a child has poor motor planning and sequencing skills, they also tend to have problems in learning, coordination, and controlling their behavior.
How It Works
The Interactive Metronome is an advanced brain-based assessment & treatment program developed to directly improve the processing abilities that affect motor planning and sequencing. Motor planning and sequencing are central to human activity – from the coordinated movements needed to walk or climb stairs, to the order of words in a sentence to provide meaning. Interactive Metronome (IM) is the only therapy tool that improves those human capacities 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.
The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the patient to synchronize 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.
Research (Reprinted from Interactive Metronome website) 
ADHD Study
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 9 to 12-year-old boys diagnosed with ADHD found those undergoing SIT treatment showed significant patterns of improvement in attention, coordination, control of aggression/impulsivity, reading and language processing. This study was published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, March 2001.
Motor Control Study
A comparison of a group of special education students who received treatment with SIT to a control group found the SIT group improved significantly in both motor control and motor coordination as measured by two independent tests (Bruininks-Oseretsky and SIPT Motor Accuracy).
Timing in Child Development Study
A correlation study of 585 children in a public school district found significant correlations between SIT score and academic performance in reading, mathematics, language, science, social studies, and study skills. The researchers concluded that timing and rhythmicity play a foundational role in the cognitive processes underlying performance in these academic areas. The results were published by the High/Scope Foundation, a non-profit educational research institution.
Academic Fluency Study
More than 1500 middle and high school students were pre-tested using selected subtests of the Woodcock Johnson III (WJ III) standardized test. The students then received 12 one-hour sessions of SIT. When the SIT treatment was complete, the students were post-tested using the same subtests of the WJ III. Analysis of the aggregate results showed statistically significant increases in students' grade equivalent (GE) performances in the following areas:
. Reading Fluency increased by 2.25 (GE)
. Math Fluency increased by 1.7 (GE)
High School Academic Study
The largest public school in Florida conducted a controlled study of 360 ninth and tenth grade students to examine the correlation between improvements in students' timing and academic achievement. Post-test results showed the SIT group scored significantly higher in broad reading and reading fluency as compared to the Control Group. Those students' math calculation skills, math fluency, and attention also improved significantly.
Title I Study
This study involved fourth and fifth grade students identified as Title I eligible and scoring in the lowest three stanines on the reading subtest of Stanford Achievement Test Edition Nine. Forty of the students participated in 12 sessions of SIT training. Forty other students formed the Control Group and were matched to Research Group students on the basis of School Ability Index scores from the Otis Lennon School Ability Test.
- The Research and Control Groups were both pre-and post-tested with the Woodcock Johnson III reading and math fluency subtests. The Research (SIT) Group achieved significantly higher post-test reading fluency performance (1.67 grade equivalency higher) than did the Control Group.
- The STAR reading assessment was also administered pre-and post-training. The results of the SIT -treated students demonstrated increases averaging one to two grade levels.
- The students' pre and post-training Stanford Achievement Test Ability-Achievement Comparison (AAC) range standings were also reviewed. As a group, the students in the SIT Group increased their AAC range standing from Low (achievement is below ability) to Middle (achievement is at ability level) or High (achievement is above expectations). The Control Group, on the other hand, either remained at the Low or Middle range or decreased from Middle to Low.
*Title I is the largest federal aid program for elementary and secondary schools.
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