Children learn first through movement, relationship, touch and their senses. Infant reflexes are small movements that allow a baby to master his little world. Infant reflexes help a baby’s brain connect the world he experiences (sensing or touching in relationship) with action that he can take (movement). Reflexes provide automatic hook-ups between the body and the brain for sensing and action.

Attention asset

Baby T is developing brain connections through movement that build attentional networks for cognition and emotional balance.

Clusters of reflexes generate developmental movements that help to build and organize neurological connections for the brain. A baby combines small, reflex movements into more complex activities, such as breastfeeding or crawling. Your baby fulfills these mastery activities whenever she has the opportunity.

Reflexes organize the brain for learning, attention networks, and emotional balance. Reflexes organize the senses, including vision and hearing, for easy function. Immature reflexes affect every aspect of the whole child. When we understand development movement we have explanations of why children may have problems with learning and/or behavior.

If a child is not given the opportunity for developmental movement, the neurological reflex pathways for those movements do not have the opportunity to mature. Children can also get “stuck” in a particular reflex pattern and do not progress to using higher levels of the brain with ease. In these cases, children need specific intervention to integrate the reflex and move on.

Research has shown that older children who have immature reflexes have a higher incidence of specific learning difficulties compared with children with mature reflexes. (O’Dell and Cook, 1996; Wilkinson, 1994; Bender, 1976; Rider, 1972; Gustafsson, 1970).

Developmental Movement Reflexes & Learning

The good news is that the brain is very responsive to developmental movement therapy. “Recent research shows that reflex abnormalities can be corrected by using a specific movement program to stimulate the appropriate reflexes at a later age, and that reflex maturation is accompanied by improvements in reading and writing.” (McPhillips, et al. 2000)

Through developmental movement opportunities children become more centered, attentive, and emotionally balanced. Children with well-developed nervous systems have less stress and find new situations and academic learning to be easy, natural, and automatic.

Resources

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