Retained Reflexes.....any advice

[mumof2terrors]

Hi

My Ds is 25 months and has not been diagnosed with asd but has a speech delay. Yesterday the SALT mentioned he is a bit floppy and his muscle tone is a bit weak....I have always felt this although he walked at 12 months he is still a bit clumsy.

I am also worried about his receptive language skills I feel he doesn't understand much. He is booked in for a repeat hearing test soon.

So now the dilemma is to go with a local OT who is trained in sensory integration and retained reflexes or to go to the sound learning centre in London? the SLC charge £600 and the OT charges £350 for initial assessment and £60 thereafter. I am so confused have any of you had any success with either? how long did it take for the results?
any advice would be appreciated.

thank you

See my threads on just that

Recent:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/1102848-Retained-Reflexes-update

Older:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/1013333-Retained-Reflexes-update

Hi Indigo, its actually because of our thread that I started to look into the therapy. My DS is very young and I don't know whether he would take well to this?

I don't know how old you have to be. 25 months may well be too young.

Why don't you ring them?

I think an OT who is trained in retained reflexes will be just as good as the SLC. It's not magic they do - they just give you OT exercises.

I reckon she may be a bit young-some reflexes dont disappear in the NT child until aged 3 so I would save the pennies for later and concentrate on other stuff at the mo. BUT I am a huge fan of reflex therapy as it has transformed my DS. We started therapy aged 4.
HTH

We started when DS was 6. The practioner we used said he wouldnt treat children younger than 5. That is just our experience. Try not to worry- he is very young yet but equally do speak to a professional to discuss your options. All the very best!

thank you for all your replies, I think we will start with the OT on Friday and then see how it goes...just wanted to see what other options there were out there for 2 year old children.

I have just started this with my (nearly 4 yr old) DS.

My son has mild CP.

We have started with someone called a behavioural optometrist - so we should move onto eye exercises later. It is primarily to help with a squint and binocular vision, although I hope that it will help with other things too.

I am probably going to move to the sound learning centre (avoided it at first as it was more expensive) because I don't feel that the behavioural optometrist is experienced enough - particularly in the workings of the body ie muscles etc

Researching on the web I have found that there are courses that practitioners can go on and they learn what to do in one day. It costs about 100 pounds. I think this is mainly for teachers. But I think possibly this is the course the person we are seeing has done. It is a way of learning how to inhibit reflexes in more of a generic rather than a specific and detailed way.

What I am not happy with is the assessment procedure. Both the initial one and the reviews. They have been brief to the point of non existent.

An OT would be more up on how the body works though - so I'd think it would be fine to try her first.

My son is doing really well with the exercises that we've been given. We do have to battle with him (or better turn them into games) - but I reckon he's gained a lot even from this not so perfect start.

2 might seem young to some people, but it depends on the child. And if you are clever and can turn the exercises into games so that your DS just thinks he's playing then it might fine.

I do see the point about waiting till an older age incase the reflexes move on by themselves. But I have also been told that because we've got a specific diagnosis for my son that its important to start as young as possible.