Programs & Services

Our Services:

Assessment…..of sensory processing deficits and patterns; neural processing speed; functional capacity; speech and language difficulties.

Visual and Auditory Training Programs….to improve the fundamental sensory processing skills necessary for learning, development, and adaptation.

Sensory Processing Intervention….to improve and strengthen sensory processing for learning and development, including maturation of gross and fine motor skills.

Literacy Programs….technology based one on one intervention, specifically addressing Dyslexia.

Behaviour Management….ranging from adolescent and adult self regulation, to non invasive strategies for the management of anxiety and performance enhancement.

Vocational Decision Making / Performance Coaching….using proven assessment and profiling tools, together with coaching to assist in re-directing career and performance goals.

NB: Medicare rebates available with appropriate referral.

Interactive Metronome (IM) is an advanced brain-based assessment & treatment program, developed to directly improve the timing and processing abilities of the brain 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 formation of sound in order to create meaningful speech; from the ability to time a golf swing in order to be at the top, to the ability to learn and to interact with others to form meaningful relationships.

Interactive Metronome (IM) is the only therapy tool that improves these human capacities by using innovative neurosensory and neuromotor exercises, developed to improve the brain's inherent ability to repair or remodel itself through the process called neuroplasticity.

Did you know that your brain has an "internal clock” that keeps time?
And that it does so at various intervals: microseconds, milliseconds, seconds, minutes, and hours?
 
Timing in the brain (or what scientists call "temporal processing”) is responsible for detecting where a sound is coming from; regulating our sleep / wake cycles; and for focusing attention, reading comprehension, learning and remembering information, processing speech, motor coordination, self regulation and impulse control, and many other human capabilities.

By addressing timing in the brain with Interactive Metronome (IM), alongside functional therapy interventions, you are not only addressing areas of ability that impact on performance and independence, but also the heart of the problem, that of deficient or sub optimal neural timing within and between regions of the brain. This leads to more efficient treatment outcomes.

The human brain's efficiency and performance depend on the seamless transition of neuronetwork signals from one area of the brain to another. Findings in a recent study by Neal Alpiner, MD, "Functional MRI Study of the Effects of IM on Auditory-Motor Processing Networks”, suggest that IM works by augmenting internal processing speed within the neuroaxis.

The key regions affected appear to include the cerebellum, prefrontal cortex, cingulate gyrus and basal ganglia. 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.

A patented audio / audio and visual guidance system provides immediate feedback measured in milliseconds, with feedback.

Over the course of the treatment you will learn to:

• Focus and attend for longer periods of time
• Increase physical endurance and stamina
• Filter out internal and external distractions
• Improve ability to monitor mental and physical actions as they are occurring
• Progressively improve performance

Those with difficulties relating to:

• ADHD
• Apraxia/Dyspraxia
• Autism Spectrum Disorders (including Asperger’s, PDD)
• Brain Injury – Acquired or Traumatic
• Auditory Processing Disorder
• Dyslexia and Other Reading Disorders
• Sensory Processing Disorder
• Parkinsons
• Stroke

Those wanting to improve:

• Ability to learn and retain information – HSC students
• Athletic performance – providing the cutting edge
• High level executive function – rapid access of information for fast and effective decision making and driving outcomes
• Ability to self regulate emotional response and improve socialization

Intervention is an intense 10-hour 10 session computer based program conducted over 2 weeks in the Brainworx Clinic. Cellfield works to strengthen auditory and visual skills associated with reading.

Normal readers use their left half of their brain in a compact, interconnected and highly efficient way. Poor readers use both sides of their brains in a disconnected and highly inefficient way. In early stages of reading, none of this matters much. However, in later stages of reading, this impacts greatly as foundation skills have not been developed.

When reading, seeing always comes first. Sound structure needs to follow almost instantaneously. By the time words come into central vision, fluent readers already understand what they are reading. They use high speed scanning for checking, not reading.

uses brain plasticity and clever computer science to synchronise information and deliver it directly where it is needed, quickly and efficiently. Only then can individuals recognise words in peripheral vision, and have spare processing capacity in working memory to think about meaning. It is this increased processing capacity that makes it possible for Cellfield students to make the transition into fluent reading, overcoming dyslexia.

is a language-based intervention which uses computer based visual exercises to stimulate visual attention, visual processing, and working memory, as well as acoustically modified sound to assist auditory perception. Neurological connections are strengthened, therefore activating parts of the brain which are involved in reading and all other forms of focused attention.

This program is useful for children and adults with visual processing and/or visual attention difficulties. Its greatest strength comes in its ability to improve symptoms of Dyslexia in both children and adults.