By Wendy Harron - February 14, 2012

It’s all in the Timing…

It’s all in the Timing…..
It’s amazing in our culture how many references there are to time or timing… “His timing was just off today”…””Time is money…”Timing is everything”…the list goes on and on. It’s “time” for us to start looking at that on a more personal level. Since time is mentioned so much, it must be important, right?
These phrases all refer to timing as something important for success. When we talk about a quarterback or a pitcher on a team, we know their timing needs to be spot on for accuracy and success. This is what we need for our children with special needs too. Even when we look as simply as our sleep/wake cycles – circadian rhythms– the importance of a sleep wake cycle can make or break someone’s day. Have you ever met a person who was excited that they couldn’t fall to sleep at night? Or how about breathing? When we are comfortable, we are breathing very rhythmically. If we aren’t, we tend to pass out! Even our heart beats out a rhythm on a regular basis.
When we start to really look at difficulties that our children or patients are having, we can see issues with timing rise to the top. In coordination – the timing of catching and throwing a ball – is very related to good timing, and it is amazing how many parents realize that once their children start doing IM. Reading is also a very time based activity – we need to be able to coordinate and move our eyes in a very smooth and coordinated fashion and at the same time decode the letters into words. Do you remember when you were in elementary school learning to read and your teacher would have you clap out the syllables? It’s very difficult to read and comprehend when you can’t read with rhythm or fluidity.
When we perform the IM exercises, we are getting to the “bare bones” part of the problem. When we improve the timing, the other things start to improve. Sometimes, I have seen children struggle initially with their exercises during IM sessions but once they start to improve, they are able to be challenged and new skills are learned.
Take a minute (oh, another reference to timing) and think about good timing and how it impacts your body, your schedule, your day! I’m pretty sure that you find that it is very important in all aspects of your life, and this is what we want for our clients too!!