Neurodivergent & smartcreativeawesomegenius

HOW IT STARTED: NEURODIVERGENT and CONNECTING THROUGH MUSIC AND DANCE

Our little girl didn’t start having conversations until 3 1/2. She knew words (ABCs, 123s, objects, colors etc.) but didn’t talk to us like we had expected. My mom gut told me (from prior experience with neurodivergents) to change her diet (dairy, gluten and dyes) so I did and with a ton of effort from our entire family, school and friends we saw a change. Although that helped a ton it wasn’t the solution or cure to say the least. When she was functioning and conversating, I wanted to help her with socializing so I put her in soccer at 4 years old. It was a complete failure because as the girls were kicking the ball, my little girl was out in the fields doing cartwheels, jumping and dancing (The ADHD was very apparent during soccer)! Soooo that was my sign to put her in DANCE. So the summer before kindergarten I put her in dance class (tap and ballet). We still had a million struggles (mood, behavior, sensory difficulties to name a few) that we were dealing with but we had to keep trying. Her dance teacher immediately saw something special and by the end of the year she RECRUITED her to the 5 to 8 performance dance team. What??!! Could this be her thing? She didn’t even have to try out! Her memory was incredible and her tap skills were above and beyond exceptional. At her first recital, we saw the light in her eyes while on the stage and we saw all the other kids looking at her to remember the next steps. She exited the stage waving to the crowd and at that moment my husband and I knew-THIS GIRL IS A DANCER.

HEALING THROUGH MUSIC AND DANCE

Before I go into the benefits of what INTERACTIVE METRONOME is and why we use it, I want to point out that we are a MUSIC family and we connect to the world through music. So it was no surprise that our little girl connected to music as well. The only difference was that we were able to express ourselves with words and emotions and she wasn’t able to. When we learned that her body moving to the rhythm of music was not only PHYSICALLY BENEFICIAL but also MENTALLY BENEFICIAL as well, it blew our minds. Our brain uses TIMING to coordinate neural networks. This means our brain grows as we time movements to sounds. Our brain CREATES NEW PATHWAYS by listening and dancing to music. She was literally HEALING THROUGH DANCE! Dancing, learning routines, tapping to the beat, physical strength needed for leaps and turns, remembering where to put your hands and when to point your toes were all a part of this art form and what helped her not only in dance but in other areas in life. It’s as if it’s helping her find her rhythm in life. She learned aerials after hundreds of repeats, mess ups, falls, scratches but that ADHD HYPERFOCUS button in her brain kept her going until she got it. Her ADHD allowed her to be resilient, hyperfocus and keep going with these skill sets. Her autism helped her to understand body mechanics and learn these tricks to the smallest detail. In addition to her memory, her drive and perseverance is amazing. She does not stop until she gets it. As a family we have learned to embrace this. She understands that music and dance help her to think and function so it makes sense why she always learned through music and is always dancing or listening to music.

She connected with this way of expressing herself because when she was on stage SHE DIDN’T NEED WORDS, she could connect to people through DANCE. She could EXPRESS HER EMOTIONS THROUGH DANCE, and that is why she loves dance. She found what she is good at and that is where she shines- on stage, no words, no worrying about responding the appropriate way, no judgement, just the stage-herself and with lots and lots of sparkles!

WHAT INTERACTIVE METRONOME IS AND WHY WE USE IT

The Interactive Metronome is evidence-based training and assessment tool.

IM is proven to improve cognition, attention, focus, memory, speech/language, executive functioning, comprehension, as well as motor and sensory skills. It is basically a device that you connect to your TV or computer so you can see the effects of catching the beat and be positively reinforced by catching the beat. So you have a clicker that you can step on and clickers on your hands that you use to find the beat. You have a visual that can see to find the beat and you can also hear (headphones) when you find the beat. It is the coolest thing. Anyone can use it to benefit their brain, but we use it for our daughter to help with overall functioning and boy did it help! This helped her find better rhythm in dancing, she seemed more coordinated in every day tasks like walking, sports (swinging, catching etc.) and lessened sensory sensitivities. It didn’t happen over night but after a couple of weeks to months we started seeing a difference. The INTERACTIVE METRONOME operates like a game and is actually kind of fun. We do this treatment when we go in for Neurofeedback Therapy every Saturday and 2x/week at home(see other blog about Neurofeedback) and together these two therapies work like a charm. It is recommended to do this therapy at least 2-3 times per week. This type of therapy helps all types of conditions for pediatrics and adults like:

AND you can even use this type of therapy for ATHLETIC ENHANCEMENT which is what some college baseball and football teams use through out the season. I mean, if this type of brain training is available for any and all to use- why not! My husband and I even use this! Knowledge really is power because who even knew this was a thing! Just like with anything in life though- there is no 1 magic solution and everything takes consistency, dedication and hard work to see results. So don’t expect to do this for a day and see all symptoms to disappear. We have been doing this consistently for 3 years and we will continue to do it (less as time goes) at least once a week until we feel we can fade it out. Even then, I will maintain this with a 1x maintenance every so often.

SO SHOULD YOU GET THE INTERACTIVE METRONOME?

YES!!! You need to connect with a psychologist and have them start you on this treatment. If you can-get this for home use as well so you can do this more frequently. We use this minimum 3x per week (for 3 years).

So that is why we use interactive metronome, how it helped our family and why we will continue to use it. Remember this in combination with all the other ways we’ve found to enhance learning and maximize potential is the way to go! Add this to your routine and YOU WILL see a difference.