The Importance Of Primitive Reflexes
When most people hear the word "reflex", they think of a doctor tapping their knee with a rubber hammer to see if it will jump. While reflexes are something that most people take for granted, their integration into our physical and neurological development is crucial.
Often overlooked as a source of imbalance, reflexes teach our brain from infancy how we interact with and belong in the world around us. When these reflexes aren't properly integrated, they can affect us into adulthood.
In this article, we'll discuss:
What primitive reflexes are
Why they're so vital for healthy cognitive and emotional development
What happens when they don't fully integrate
How to integrate underdeveloped reflexes
What Are Primitive Reflexes?
Primitive reflexes are the involuntary motor responses that you're born with as an infant. These reflexes help to facilitate basic survival in baby's into early childhood and are eventually replaced with voluntary reflexes as you mature. Originating from the central nervous system (CNS), primitive reflexes automatically instruct your muscles to react without their conscious awareness.
Some examples of primitive reflexes include[*]:
Palmar Grasp -- This reflex is seen when an infant grasps their tiny hand onto your finger.
Moro Reflex -- Also considered the startle reflex, is typically triggered by a sudden change in the infant's head position. This results in them opening the core of their body, extending their arms and fingers, and then closing the core of the body by flexing the limbs and making fists. They'll usually give an exhale or a cry as well.
Rooting and Sucking -- These reflexes help babies get the nourishment they need. While the rooting reflex is exhibited by the baby turning its head toward anything that touches its cheek or corner of its mouth, the sucking reflex can be seen when anything is put into the baby's mouth.
Fear Paralysis Reflex -- The fear paralysis reflex is triggered by a sensory stimulus such as a loud noise or unexpected flash of light. This reflex is similar to the "freeze response" we see in the fight, flight, or freeze, where the infant withdraws their limbs, bringing them inward.
Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR) -- This reflex supports the baby's response to gravity and helps them straighten out from the fetal position.
Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) -- This reflex acts as a prerequisite to crawling. It can be seen when the infant's head moves forward and their arms straighten as their legs bend. This allows the baby to learn how to use the upper and lower parts of their body independently.
The proper development of primitive reflexes is vital for creating a foundation of body awareness and higher motor, emotional, and cognitive skills. Although they may seem like small movements, these reflexes help to grow your brain when you're an infant just coming into this world. These repetitive movements assist in the development of an infant's balance, mobility, vision, hearing, speaking, learning, and communicating.
For instance, a properly developed Moro reflex results in a baby's ability to:
Find their own body as a point of reference
Self organize
Develop inner control and stress management
Link the center of the body to the periphery, and vice versa
Create balance and equilibrium
Coordinate breathing reflexes
Regulate behavior
Access creativity
And much more
When the Moro reflex is not properly developed, it can result in:
Vulnerability and emotional instability (fear and phobia)
Poor balance and equilibrium
Delays in motor development
Fear of new information and life changes
Improper protection and survival responses
Negative influence of immunity (allergies, infections, etc.)
Irrational behavioral patterns like excessive anxiety, paralyzed will, and timidity
And more
What Happens When Primitive Reflexes Don't Integrate?
When reflexes aren't properly developed and integrated, it creates a shaky foundation for higher development levels in motor, emotional, and cognitive functions. Incomplete integration of primitive reflexes may lead to issues like[*][*]:
Anxiety
Depression
ADD
ADHD
Autism
Learning disorders
Behavioral challenges
Extreme shyness
Lack of confidence
Vision and hearing problems
Feelings of overwhelm
Addiction
And more
The image below depicts the pyramid of learning, which illustrates the foundational steps that must be developed before higher learning can be achieved. As you can see, body awareness and reflexes make a crucial chunk of the foundation of the pyramid. When these aspects are not properly integrated, upstream processes like cognitive and emotional development will be limited.
Ideally, as your CNS matures, the involuntary movements become controlled motor responses. If this doesn't happen, you'll struggle with motor, emotional, and cognitive skills.
What Causes Impaired Reflex Development?
There are several potential reasons why your reflexes may not have fully integrated. These include:
Lack of enough movement in early childhood (walkers, propping devices, playpens, swings, and car seats all restrict your child's movements).
Maternal stress during pregnancy (birth trauma, cesarean section, exposure to sonograms)
Illness, trauma, or injury
Environmental toxins
Electronic pollution
Crucial Steps For Reflex Integration
The good news is, if you or your child have unintegrated reflexes, it's never too late to work on integration. It may seem like a strange bridge, but working on your reflexes can profoundly impact your cognitive and emotional abilities due to the connection of your CNS.
With that being said, jumping into reflex integration won't always work if other foundational pieces haven't been fully developed. Before working on reflexes, you must address vagal tone and neurological organization.
Vagal Tone
Working on vagal tone enhances feelings of safety and calm. Your vagus nerve, which runs from your gut to your brain, is the seat of your mind-body connection. Before you can begin making changes to your neurological development, your brain and body must know that they are safe.
This need for safety comes from a primitive part of your brain that is always on alert for danger. You can think of it this way: your ancestors living in the wild among predators would have to stay very aware of their environment and use very little brainpower to learn new things. This was a wise survival skill.
For someone with unintegrated reflexes, the vigilance that comes from the primitive brain is likely still cued up. And unfortunately, when this part of the brain is active, the cognitive and emotional developmental part of the brain is quiet.
By enhancing vagal tone, it sends a message to your brain and body that you are safe, and that your environment holds no threats. This allows you to access the higher learning areas of your brain where reflex integration can happen.
Neurological Organization
After creating a sense of safety, you can now begin to make changes in your brain.
However, before you begin with reflex integration, the second step would be to create more organization in your brain. An organized brain will better receive the information and respond to input that will assist in reflex integration.
You will literally be organizing your brain through neurological organization, so it works for you, not against you. As a result, you'll experience more cognitive and emotional control, increased communication skills, and enhanced attention and focus.
Once vagal tone and neurological organization have been addressed, you're ready to begin reflex integration.
How Brain Harmony Helps With Reflex Integration
At Brain Harmony, we take a holistic view of reflex integration.
We begin with vagal regulation and neurological organization, setting the stage for higher learning and integration. For vagal tone, we use the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) system, which directly impacts the vagus nerve and brings your nervous system into a calm place that allows you to open up to areas of higher learning.
We then use a program called the iLS Focus Unit, which instructs neurological organization in your brain, making your brain a sponge for new information.
Once these steps are complete, we take our friends through a reflex integration program.
Each program is developed specifically for the individual by an occupational therapist after a thorough assessment of reflexes. We train you (or the caregiver if the client is a child) with manual intervention strategies designed to integrate any reflexes that haven't fully integrated.
We incorporate the Musgutova Reflex Integration techniques (or MNRI) into our program as we believe that this is the most efficient and effective reflex integration method available. In addition, we continue with the use of the iLS Focus Unit, which is a listening device that focuses on brain-body integration.
As a result of our reflex integration program, friends exhibit improvements in several areas of the pyramid of learning, such as:
Physical coordination (walking, running, biking)
Visual function
Hearing and comprehension
Focus and memory recall
Emotional and behavioral regulation
Speech production with the use of hands and feet reflex patterns
Postural control
And more
Takeaway
Reflex integration is a vital aspect of overall neurological and motor function and is surprisingly common among both adolescent and adult populations. If you feel that either you or your child may have unintegrated reflexes, contact Brain Harmony for a Free Consultation to see if our program is the right fit for you.