Primitive Reflexes

Reflex Purpose When Retained Rooting suckling, feeding oral fixation, picky eater, nail biting, mouthing objects Grasp Holding on Poor grasp, inconsistent handwriting, stimming of hands Spinal Galant Assist in birth process Fidgety while sitting, annoyed by clothing tags or textures, bedwetting Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR) Upper body development in vitro, foundation of hand eye coordination and visual tracking Sleep in "Greek God Pose", not able to walk in straight line especially while turning head, awkward gait, awkward athletically, poor visual tracking, poor hand eye coordination, difficulty crossing midline Landau inhibits ATNR, strengthen muscle tone, vestibulo ocular motor skills Suggests presence of primitive reflexes, balance issues, awkward with lower extremities with effects on running, hopping and skipping Moro (startle) Survival Hypersensitive or agitated easily by stimuli, hold breath when stimulated, hypersensitive fight or flight response Tonic Labyrinthine Postural Vestibular Gravitational insecurity, impedance of head-righting or visual ocular reflexes (VOR), retention of STNR Symmetrical Tonic Neck (STNR) Coordination Poor hand eye coordination, uncoordinated, impedance of crawling, associated with learning disabilities

Ok, here is a chart that I found on another mom's blog whose child went through Brain Balance.  Basically the primitive reflexes are supposed to all be integrated by about 1 year of age.  So, Kate has retained all of the primitive reflexes (see Drum Role, Please).  It is easy to see how some of her difficulties come from these primitive reflexes, the need to hold toys, the constant movement, being irritated by clothing, always bumping into me when we are walking, touching everything.  I read this: "Primitive reflexes are automatic, stereotyped, rhythmical movements directed by the brain stem and

carried out without involvement of the cortex of the brain." on this website http://www.itsacademictutoring.com/Primitive%20Reflexes.htm.  It gives a nice explanation of the reflexes if you are interested.  Anyway, that quote was helpful to me as we were walking through the store and Kate was touching everything.  I started saying " Why are you touching everything?"  and then caught myself and kept quiet.  Now I know.

We are doing exercises 3 times a day for about 15 minutes each time to encourage her body to integrate these reflexes and move to higher level reflexes where she is in control of her body.

This is the exercise for the spinal galant:

You can find the other exercises on YouTube. 

So I know these are helping.  Why??  First, because Kate is wearing a different pair of pants each day.  Granted they are all the same fabric, but still.  Second, she wore a pair of Braden's shorts last night so she could go swimming.  No big fuss or anything.  Luckily they were the silky athletic shorts kind.  Anyway, she had so much fun swimming and all because she was willing to wear those shorts!!  Third, she wore a different shirt today.  And didn't make a fuss about it.  At all!!  (She has worn the same shirt everyday since September).  YahoooOO!