DMI Intensive Therapy
what is it?!
and
millie’s first experience
I wanted to share our own and first experience of Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI) with Camilla’s intensive therapy session. While at the same time provide information to what exactly an intensive therapy session is to help give a bit of information. I am no expert or medical professional, I gathered my information from BeelievAbility’s website and pamphlets, various websites and what we experienced during Millie’s sessions. There is much great information there and I highly encourage you to do some further research if you have any questions or are just curious to learn more. I am happy to help in anyway I can as well!
In mid November Camilla had an intensive therapy session for a week to help in different areas of her development, physical and mental strength. Each session is so different and it all depends on the kid, their abilities and focus points to work on from both a parent and therapist viewpoint. I’m going to give some high-level information about what DMI is, the benefits, etc. I will also talk about Camilla’s sessions and the almost immediate changes and developments we have seen since her session. There are also some action shots and videos shared at the end of this post.
As with anything in life no two people are alike, so there is no check list of what one can do before and after their session. These are all things we’ve noticed with Camilla but understand everyone’s experience is different and will continue to grow/change as the child’s brain and body adjust to learning and opening up new skills. Nothing is ever accomplished overnight
For about the last year or so I’ve been looking into different therapies, treatments and activities for Camilla to help her in her development. I kept seeing articles about intensives and organizations that offered the intensive sessions…and then I started to see some people we actually know attend these sessions and rave about them. Since this is a very specific and unique type of therapy treatment it is likely you will have to travel to attend a session. The travel aspect had me hesitant because at minimum these sessions are for a week and the closest I was finding were a minimum 3 hours away. Those are some tricky logistics to figure out with our other girls, school and Eric’s work schedule.
A friend told me about her daughter working with these amazing ladies locally who were going to start doing intensives…I was very excited! I did some research and reached out to inquire and luckily snagged a spot for Camilla’s first intensive this past November. When I say lucked out I mean it…these ladies book up quick and we started this process in June to secure her spot in November! Camilla’s session was done by Allie and Maggie, the wonderful team behind BeelievAbility. I will be adding a post about BeelievAbility next week.
As I mentioned the sessions can vary in length from 1-3 weeks. At the time we booked the session Millie was still getting very tired throughout the day and hadn’t had her tonsils/adenoids removed to help with her sleep apnea so we weren’t sure how she would handle this new therapy. We went with a 1 week session to be mindful of everyone’s time and energy, not push Millie to the point that it was not beneficial and to really see how her body would react to a different therapy. Fast forward to November and I wish we could have added on another week after the first day! Millie was LOVING her sessions and naps were not even a thought in her head. Camilla had two sessions a day each lasting an hour, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Now by the end of the week she was pretty wiped after her last session but I would be too if I just basically worked out to my max twice a day for 5 days in a row.
There are so many layers to intensive therapy and what a session looks like varies by patient, therapists and even session to session. I encourage you to do some of your own research if you are interested because this is some pretty cool stuff! But to keep this article digestible I have some highlights of information below…what is an intensive, main goal and areas of focus.
What is DMI/Intensive Therapy?
Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI) is a therapeutic technique used by physical therapists to treat children with motor delay. It works by improving automatic postural responses and promoting progress toward developmental milestones
The goal of DMI is to provoke a specified active motor response in response to defined dynamic exercises prescribed by the therapist. This comprehensive intervention incorporates current research on neurorehabilitation, technologies, and methodologies.
Neurorehabilitation is a complex medical process which aims to aid recovery from a nervous system injury, and to minimize and/or compensate for any functional alterations resulting from it
DMI stimulates neuro plasticity to facilitate new neuronal connections and development of motor milestones. (Sourced: dmitherapy.com)
neuro plasticity is the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections after injuries, such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury
DMI focuses on:
Gross motor skills (Promotes Neurological Maturity )
Gradual progression – Continuously increasing the challenge to encourage the child to respond with greater independence.
Alignment and Postural Control
Range of Motion - Muscle and joint range of motion is achieved by movement
Balance – Improved balance is a common thread through most DMI exercises.
Functional movements – Improving actions and skills that lead to attaining milestones such as rolling, sitting, standing, and walking.
Somatosensory Development - The strong sensory information provided by the exercises sends afferent messages to the brain to create specialized synapses that fine tune balance, muscle control, and movement.
Modifying tone, primitive reflexes, and abnormal patterns of movement - DMI strives to provide normalized movement patterns to children with neurological dysfunction to assist with the integration of disruptive primitive reflexes.
Global Development - DMI focuses on gross motor skills, however, many other skills develop as a byproduct of this intensive intervention. (Sourced From DMI).
WHY THE WEEK(S) LONG SESSIONS?
DMI intensive is a block period of time of 1 to 3 weeks for 2 different times a day, each session lasting 45 to 50 minutes.
This method allows the brain to better understand the patterning and repetition to make gross motor movements while building the strength and endurance of the child.
The goal of DMI intensives is to challenge the neurological and sensory systems to enhance gross motor movements.
The therapist will challenge the child's head/neck control, core stability, righting reflexes, balance and coordination, movement against gravity, and postural strength challenges.
Throughout the intensive, the child will build new neural pathways, strength, and endurance for improved motor outcomes.
The Intensive Models (IMOT) recommends 3 weeks of an intensive to help build neuroplasticity through repetition and introducing novel tasks.
camilla’s intensive therapy session:
I go into more details about BeelievAbility in another article to bring a bigger spotlight to Allie and Maggie. There were so many fabulous warmups and exercises Camilla did in her week that I could go on and on but I kept it a bit more high level. I’ve also included some pictures and video below of Millie girl in action and there is a reel on my Instagram to check out as well.
Prior to Camilla’s first day at BelievAbility, I had the opportunity to hop on a call with Allie to chat a bit more about Millie (her diagnosis, abilities, goals, personality, etc). I loved this because Camilla has a lot of determination and ability that sometimes can get overlooked because people just see the notes or diagnosis and not the person. (generally speaking) On Millie’s first day the morning session was spent with an evaluation by Allie to assess abilities, talk goals and help Allie get a game plan for the week. This was cool for me to see as well because I typically don’t go into Millie’s therapy sessions and I’m not with her at school.
In the second session of the first day Allie got right into all the things with Millie…no time was wasted which was awesome! Among other goals for the week, walking was a big one! Not just walking but balance, pace, awareness, stability and of course motor planning. All things to help Camilla continue to strive towards walking independently.
Each session was a mix of stretching, getting Camilla’s brain activated in new ways and of course WORK HONEY! As with any kid there are times when Millie wants to just take a little break when the work really kicks in. But during this week this girl worked her butt off in each session. As the week progressed we saw Millie’s confidence grow, she would even request to do some of the more tricky and demanding exercises. Camilla’s independent step count increased, she could take about 2 steps and now her base line is 5 INDEPENDENT STEPS.
We’ve also noticed an increase in her using her right hand, which is her weaker side and she is not very confident with her right hand. For example if you ask her to grab an object with her right she will almost always immediately move it to her left. The Saturday after her week was over she was eating using her right hand!!
Another major change we’ve noticed is her speech, Millie is saying new words and sounds. She is also trying to vocalize new words and saying things more clearly. We noticed this after day 2 and when I mentioned it to Allie and Maggie they said they’ve heard this from other families as well. It’s like a fabulous bonus effect of the DMI and working the brain in a new way. new doors are being opened neurologically….I know this is not a medially sound sentence at all! Apologies for any cringes I’ve created 😂.
On the final day and final session we went through all the exercises to do at home. As I mentioned, intensives are very hard to get into and you can’t just pop on the schedule next week or a few weeks out. Many clinics are booked out 4-6 months in advance. So the work being done at home in between is crucial to keep the momentum going. There are also specific exercises that help build the muscles (memory and physical) over time to gain the strength and balance. When you are watching the exercises being done throughout the week it’s impressive work how these ladies can maneuver and handle the kids. They keep them safe while building confidence but also flow through each exercise with such ease. When I tried out a few with Millie my arms were on fire…I legit thought “Omg I’m going to drop my child on her face in front of these ladies and Thistle!” But they were amazing and cheered me on and I was like “oh yeah I got this!”
Some of the exercises done at the hive and to be worked on at home focused on Millie’s balance, coordination, head and torso control, rotation of her hips/thighs, and of course walking. Some of the exercises are related to primitive reflexes which are movement patterns originating in the central nervous system and are seen in typical developing infants and integrate into the overall gross motor skills as the child matures. Some of the ones we work on with Millie are rooted around her core and balance, getting comfortable pushing weight through to her arms/hands, hand/eye coordination and over extending her torso. By using rhythmic movement training techniques that imitate the movements of an infant in development, patients are able to integrate these retained reflexes. These repetitive motions develop the reflexes and gradually help develop the front and visual cortex of the brain. (source:impactvisiontherapy)
In terms of what Camilla did during her sessions there was a lot of work with moving boxes and surface. There were so many cool things she did that I’ve only listed a few. I have a few actions shots below and a reel BeelievAbility put together—check them out!
Some balance beam work while kicked blocks
standing while literally getting the rug (silk scarf) pulled out from under her
a moving large square that reminded us of a pop star’s stage moving at all angles during her performance
lots of walking…sometimes just walking and sometimes with a few games or tasks involved…always ending with giving Thistle treats. I think this was the first time Millie didn’t ask for food for her and instead for someone else! 🤣
warming up on a vibration plate working on that hands/knees and squatting positions
taking lots of spins different angles (180, 90, 45)
and the list goes on!
Another treatment I was contemplating for Millie was seeing a pediatric chiropractor. Early in the week Allie and Maggie asked if she had ever been adjusted and that it could help Camilla immensely. We chatted more about it and then Eric and I decided to move forward with having Millie get adjusted during her intensives. It has made a big difference! It’s helped her not be as tight in her tone, helped her hips and right side. We’ve continued the adjustment sessions and continue to see improvements. Over time it will help her hips and gait align for walking and she just seems a bit more at ease when sitting for longer periods of time.
