INTERVIEW

iLs Interview: Doreit Bialer, MA, OTR

Current Work: Occupational Therapist, independent contractor in public schools (grades K-8) and private practice

Tell me about your background and the clients you see.
I’ve been in practice for 19 years. I am certified in NDT for pediatrics and adults, and I work in private practice assessing and treating children and adolescents with ADHD, SPD and developmental disabilities. I’ve just completed a book, co-written by Dr. Lucy Jane Miller called No Longer A SECRET; Unique Common Sense Strategies for Children with Sensory and Motor Challenges, published through Sensory World, Future Horizons. It will be available in late September.

Congratulations on the book! Which assessments and interventions do you use?
The main assessments I use include Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, Developmental Test of Visual Perception, Miller Function and Participation Scales, Sensory Processing Measure, Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and the WOLD Sentence Copying Subtest, which measures the speed and accuracy of the child’s ability to copy letters and words from near point.

Interventions include iLs, Interactive Metronome (IM) and metronomes, Brain Gym, NDT techniques (neurodevelopmental therapy), Handwriting without Tears, and of course sensory integration.

How do you integrate iLs into your practice?
Many of the referrals come to me through teachers, therapists, neurologists and psychologists. I see an abundance of children that are hypersensitive to sound, touch, movement and visual input. What they experience and process in their bodies, and in the environment, is poorly organized and often lacking meaning, which leads to the child becoming overloaded and frightened. As a protective mechanism, many of the children will act out. In therapy, children learn to tolerate and organize sensory stimuli. As sensation becomes more meaningful, children’s responses become more adaptive and appropriately match the sensory stimuli.

I spend a great deal of time in the evaluation process which includes interviewing parents, teachers and children. When intervention begins, the children are introduced to iLs music and headphones. In conjunction with exercises from the iLs Playbook and Brain Gym. The IM (or I sometimes use an actual metronome) is another treatment tool used to help children with focus, timing and organizing movement patterns. During therapy, I use a mix of activities such as the child following sequential directions, planning out movements and activities, following visual targets, balancing, etc.

All of this goes on while the child is listening to music through iLs’ air and bone conduction system. I’ve used other ‘listening programs’ in my therapy but have found that children appear to tolerate the music and headphones better in the iLs program.

Typically I see clients twice a week. Sessions are usually 1 hour for 24-40 sessions over a 4-6 month period.

What are the changes you typically see with your combination of therapies?
The children appear to attend and stay aroused for more sustained periods of time. Improvements are noted in post-tests in areas including motor accuracy, visual motor integration, copying speed and accuracy. Executing motor tasks, being more aware of their own bodies and more respectful of other children’s space are reported by parents and teachers.

Can you give us a particular case which exemplifies some of these results?
One of the referrals was a 10-year-old boy who was very sensitive to sound, and had school/social phobias. Everything he heard was perceived as painful. He could not tolerate being in a classroom without wearing earplugs. His mom couldn’t take him to the mall; he rarely had friends over and avoided extracurricular activities. We used the iLs Focus’ Sensory Motor Program combined with the Concentration/Attention Program as well as some of the other alternative therapies I mentioned earlier. After about 30 sessions, we started to notice some significant changes. His hyper-sensitivity to sound decreased and he became more tolerant to music, enjoying it and comfortably wearing the headphones for the entire session. His mother informed me that he started to express an interest in playing ice hockey with his dad (he hadn’t been able to tolerate the loud noises of an ice rink) and started staying after school to work on projects with peers. To see some of these changes – social, academic, athletic, personal confidence – happen over a 6-month period was very gratifying to the child, family and to me as the therapist!

NEW iLs RESEARCH: HIGH FUNCTIONING AUTISM

A new study measuring the effectiveness of the iLs program on children with high functioning autism was launched earlier this month. The research is being conducted by Spiral Foundation in Boston, MA, under the direction of Principal Investigator, Teresa May Benson, ScD, OTR/L.

The study is a single subject research design involving 18 children in 4 locations. The primary aim of the research is to investigate whether long and/or short term gains are achieved with the iLs program by examining behavioral, sensory and functional skill changes over the course of the program.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Join us for the 2011 iLs Annual Conference!

Where: At the landmark Oxford Hotel in the heart of LODO, Denver’s arts and entertainment district.

When: Sept. 21, 2:00pm - Sept. 24, 12:00pm

Reserve your hotel room today! This is a popular season for tourism in Colorado!

Topics & Presenters

SPARK: Optimizing Brain Function Through Exercise
John J. Ratey, M.D.

The Neurobiology of Sound and its Affect on Arousal and Regulation
Kimberly Barthel, OT

How Vision-Related Problems May Affect Outcomes: Identification and Intervention
Neena Gabrielle, O.D., FCOVD

Use of iLs at the STAR Center
Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR

Neurobehavioral Links to iLs: Understanding the Neurological Underpinnings for Improving Performance and Behavior Through iLs Interventions
Ron Minson, M.D.

Biomedical Treatments and iLs: Case Presentations
Carmen L. Baez Franceschi, MD, FAAP, MBA

iLs and “Traditional Therapy”: A Clinical Model for Enhanced Services
Kids Kount Therapy: Shannon Norris, OT, Andrea Pointer, CCC-SLP, Cindy Dawkins, OT

For complete conference information, visit: iLs Conference 2011

Case Studies

iLs Associates, keep sending these in! They are valuable learning tools and proving to be very popular. Please submit all case studies to info@integratedlistening.com