Primitive Reflexes

Retained primitive reflexes can affect children’s learning, behaviour and emotions. They are integrated and switched off when an infant starts to have conscious control of his/her movements. They have a limited time span and are switched off or integrated through normal childhood activities. If the reflexes are retained they can lead to neuro-developmental delay and poor sensory integration e.g. they can impair balance which will cause a child difficulty in judging space, distance, depth and speed. Balance is vital for everyone, for example, when astronauts lose their sense of balance in space they start to write from right to left, reverse numbers and letters and produce mirror writing. The following reflexes are the ones that are most often retained.

  • Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex: affects balance, visual tracking and often leads to reading problems
  • Tonic Neck-Righting Reflex: prevents the child from achieving good posture and balance.
  • Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Righting Reflex: can lead to poor pencil grip leading to difficulty copying off the board and poor recording skills as well as an aversion to writing. It is the reflex most often involved in poor academic performance.
  • Moro Reflex: causes children to be hypersensitive to sound,light and touch and therefore causes concentration and attention problems. It also contributes to emotional problems and is involved poor and irrational behaviour.

Common questions that would suggest retained primitive reflexes are:

  • Problems in pregnancy.
  • Problems in delivery.
  • Problems with birthing (forceps, suction, C-section, induction, long, short).
  • Difficulty in feeding or keeping milk down.
  • Early or late walking – before 10 months or after 16 months.
  • Unusual crawling action or skip the cross crawling stage.
  • Late when learning to talk (2-3 words by 2 years).
  • Serious illness or seizures in the first 18 months of life.
  • Signs of eczema, asthma or allergies or recurrent sinus or ear infections or headaches.
  • Adverse reactions to childhood vaccinations.
  • Bed wetting regularly past the age of 5.
  • Thumb sucking past the age of 5.
  • Problems with travel / motion sickness.
  • Trouble establishing hand dominance or crossing the midline with objects.
  • Over reaction to sudden loud noise.

Common questions that would suggest retained primitive reflexes are:

  • Problems learning to read and / or write in the early years at school
  • Difficulty telling the time on an analogue clock.
  • Difficulty riding a bicycle.
  • Difficulty catching a ball and poor coordination.
  • Problems being still.
  • Problems when copying from the board.
  • Occasionally miss letters or write them backwards or missing words out when reading.
  • Awkward pencil grip.
  • Behavioural problems at school or problems with going to school.
  • Problems making friends.

If you have answered yes to some or all of these questions then it is likely that there are some retained primitive reflexes causing problems as they are a sign of an immature central nervous system. The child Centre Method can provide assessment and treatment.