Using Primitive Reflex Integration to Achieve Results
What Primitive Reflexes Are:
Primitive reflexes are automatic movements that all babies are born with. These reflexes come from the brainstem and are essential for survival and early development. As a child grows, these reflexes should become more controlled, allowing the child to develop skills like moving, learning, and managing emotions.
Key Terms Explained:
- Involuntary Motor Responses: Automatic movements, like when a baby’s hand grasps something without thinking.
- Brainstem: The part of the brain that controls these automatic movements.
- Facilitate Survival: These reflexes help babies survive, like grabbing onto things for safety.
- Integrated: When a reflex becomes more controlled, and the body starts moving naturally without extra effort.
- Voluntary Functions: Movements you can control, like picking up objects easily or moving without pain.
- Sensory: How we take information from our surroundings, like feeling something in your hand.
- Motor: Your body’s ability to move and respond to the environment, like holding or letting go.
- Cognition: Your brain’s ability to think, learn, and understand.
- Emotional Regulation: Controlling emotions and managing stress in response to different situations.
For example, if a child is holding onto a bar with weak wrists and their thumb isn’t wrapped around it, this suggests their grasp reflex hasn’t fully developed. By working on this reflex, the child can improve fine motor skills (like handwriting), better control their movements, understand ideas more efficiently, and better manage their emotions and stress.
We Are Laying The Groundwork For Independence
Real Change
Part of our extensive training is about how a reflex is not firing correctly. Some reflexes may not have emerged, and other pathways stop firing due to physical or emotional trauma. We are able to "connect the dots" for the brain. Replicating this reflex is important, so a home program is key. Call us today. It's never too late, and you are never too old to make your life easy.
A Primitive Reflex Example
Sensory information comes into the body and is organized by the brain. Our brain then sends the appropriate signal back to the muscles for our bodies to react. That circuit is called a reflex. By the time a child walks, they have fully integrated primitive reflexes, allowing for correct alignment and function for the rest of their lives. Activating all 20 reflexes soon after birth provides your child with the best possible preventative care.
Our Therapists are Truly Amazing!
Empire strives to provide its employees with extensive training that benefits everyone we serve. Empire employees have spent over 2,500 hours in certified continuing education courses in manual and neurological rehab in the last six years!
Improve Your Life with Empire Therapy
Infant Care
Concussion Care
Pedatric Care
REFLEXES ARE BEST FOR
- Feeding
- Breastfeeding
- Developmental Milestones
- Plagiocephaly
- Torticollis
- Rolling
- Sitting
- Crawling
- Walking
Pedatric Care
Concussion Care
Pedatric Care
REFLEXES ARE BEST FOR
- ADHD
- Attention
- Sleep
- Anxiety
- Learning Disabilities
- Sensory Integration
- Incontinence
- Bonding
- Language Development
- Gross Motor Development
Concussion Care
Concussion Care
Concussion Care
REFLEXES ARE BEST FOR
- Vision Rehab
- Auditory Hypersensitivities
- Vestibular Rehab
- Cognition
- Sleep
- Anxiety
- Emotional Regulation
