Treating Cognitive and Motor Impairments: Interactive Metronome

Treating Cognitive and Motor Impairments: Interactive Metronome

by Trenae Webb, MA, CCC-SLP

How many times have you heard the saying, “timing is everything?” Even now, as many of our lives, normal routines, and expectations have shifted due to COVID-19, we can still find truth in those three little words. The more we can find a rhythm or pulse to pace ourselves, the more effective and efficient we become.

How Timing Improves Cognitive and Motor Skills

Individuals with cognitive impairments have trouble remembering, learning new things, concentrating, or making decisions that affect their everyday life. Motor impairments can include muscle weakness and fatigue, impaired sensation and poor balance – all of which help us undertake the usual range of daily activities.

Everything that we see, hear, feel, and how we move are all linked to timing. Studies have shown that children and adults with cognitive and motor impairments all have a deficiency in their neural timing – or how the brain keeps time. Interactive Metronome, a computer-based program, can help patients establish this rhythm.

Interactive Metronome Computer Tool

Interactive Metronome’s computer program is designed to help both children and adults improve their neural timing through rhythm and repetition. Through a series of simple tasks with interactive games, patients work toward synchronizing physical movements and exercises (i.e., hand claps, toe taps, etc.) to a beat.

The combination of sounds and images can improve the brain’s neural timing leading to improvements in the following areas, including:

  • Attention
  • Motor coordination
  • Language processing
  • Self-regulation
  • Memory

Woman’s Center for Wellness offers Interactive Metronome. To schedule an appointment, contact Woman’s Pediatric Therapy at 225-924-8450