Home biofeedback unit - lllex, how do you like it?

[catatonic]

Biofeedback is one area that shows tremendous promise in the research on ADHD. I've been repeatedly impressed by it. In fact, having located a provider about an hour from us, biofeedback for my son may become a reality someday soon. Soooooo, I read lllex's mention of the home biofeedback unit with great interest. I've read about them in several places. (Here's one, if you want to take a look www.adhd-biofeedback.com/ )

lllex, what's your experience been like with the biofeedback? Is it helpful? Expensive? If anyone else has tried it, I'd love to hear about it!

[lllex]

I don't have enough time in yet to know whether it's going to help or not. It's only 35 minutes twice a week, but it's been hard to squeeze that in. I'm considering holding off on using the play attention system until after I see how he's doing with the Feingold diet and the vitamin supplemention. That way I'll be able to see if it makes a difference. I'm thinking that the Feingold diet and the supplementation will only take DS so far, and then the biofeedback will help him concentrate even better. By summer I should have his supplemention tweaked to where I want (I'm hoping anyway ), then I'll start the biofeedback again. Is there a test somewhere that I can give him to test his ability to concentrate/focus? It would be nice to check this now, then after 6 weeks of supplements, then after a summer of biofeedback. Can we get hold of the IVA/CPT test that was used in the Harvard study?

I was able to purchase the unit for about $1700 - ouch! Compared to 60 sessions with a provider it doesn't seem too bad, but I don't know if it works as well as a professional unit with a provider. It's pretty cool though, it has 5 different games, each game is designed to help a different thing. The 1st game is for increasing the length of time of concentration, 2nd game is for concentrating while teacher is moving about the classroom (tracking), 3rd game is for time on task (starting homework and continuing till done), 4th game is for memory sequence (kind of like simon), and 5th game is for filtering distractions (focus on the teacher and ignore the loud kid sitting next to you). The 3rd game also has a homework bridge option - they do their homework while doing this game, if they are concentrating on their homework the tower will be built, if they lose focus the blocks building the tower will stop. There is also an option to see the raw data, so you can see the beta and theta brain waves - I thought that was really cool!

I'll keep you all updated with results!

Laura

[catatonic]

lllex,
You can buy the IVA/CPT test on-line.

Here is a detailed description of the test and what it measures:
incrediblehorizons.com/braintrain-iva.html

Here is the ordering and pricing information. It is NOT cheap, at $329 for the computer program download and 10 testing uses, from the same computer.
incrediblehorizons.com/Braintrain-ivapricing.html
(IVA/CPT stands for Intermediate Visual and Auditory/Continuous Performance Test.)

There's an evaluation of the test here:
alpha.fdu.edu/psychology/cpt_review.htm

You might want to check with a university near you. It's possible they have this test, or even administer it.

[AustinsMom]

I've been looking at this Play Attention also, as a possible summer activity. It is pricey, but not any more so than Fast ForWord which we did several summers ago. I've been checking on other boards too, and it seems like not many have experience with it. Looks like it's another "try it and see" option.....