Retained Reflexes Therapy

[rabbitstew]

Have finally had ds1 assessed for the above. Apparently, he still has significant presence of asymmetrical tonic neck, palmar and spinal gallant reflexes, as well as underdeveloped postural reflexes... Will have advice on treatment shortly, but was wondering from those who have been through this with their children: are all reflexes dealt with at the same time; how long before we might notice any improvements; how long might our ds1 have to work on any programmes to improve the situation? He has on his side, significant intelligence (far greater verbal than non-verbal, however - might post another query on oddities in non-verbal development at some point!), a relatively compliant personality, and a learnt ability to perservere if he understands that his hard work is going to have an effect at some point!

ps we are particularly interested in the speed at which improvements re bedwetting might be seen as an indirect consequence of improving the spinal gallant reflex, as he currently wets the bed every night and I know this is something he would love to be able to stop, given that his little brother doesn't have to wear nappy pants.

Hiya
we are still doing retained reflex therapy but saw very speedy results with some and less so with others. Spinal galant for us was almost instantaneous for example whereas moro has taken a long time. We address 1-2 reflexes at a time starting with the very primitive ones (fear paralysis and grasping reflexes) then moved onto others-the postural reflexes tend to fall in automatically once primitive ones inhibited. But dont expectinstant results with many of them-for us it was more gradual but significant changes iyswim
Any more queries just ask!

Thanks for that. Given the reflexes I mentioned, any chance of the spinal gallant one being dealt with straight away?! I'd love to see some rapid results on that one!

Tbh this wasnt one we did straight away but it just solved the problem within about a week-absolutely phenomenal. Think it depends how your practitioner works-we started with grasping and moro then worked on . I think some of them are closely related to the moro so once thats sorted a lot of others do resolve. Be prepared for some mood swings though-our placid little 5 year old went through terrible but transient separartion anxiety and terrible 2s-but he never went through them when he was 2 so was a good sign but get the wine in...

We don't have a problem with the moro reflex, fortunately! I guess palmar is the grasping one, though? Also have mild presence of plantar reflex (the foot one!). Shame about the behaviours - we've worked for 6 years on transforming our ds1 from an over-reactive, terribly separation-anxiety-ridden little boy into a sweet natured, relatively even tempered, relatively trusting one! (Maybe we cured Moro by ourselves!!!).

Yes palmar and plantar grasping ones and DS running improved dramatically with this as did writing/pencil grip and spookily dribbling (link with sucking reflex).
Glad moro self-sorted!That was definately the most challenging time for us-others relatively painless and spinal galant nothing short of miraculous.
Keep me posted-are you doing with an OT or INPP?

Doing with an INPP licentiate recommended by INPP but living closer to our home.
ps any idea whether ds's oddities in visual perception (see my query re his odd drawing skills on the separate thread...) might make any improvements following retained reflexes therapy?!

Visual tracking and perception have roots in reflexes-for example anyone with a retained STNR would find it almost impossible to look at a board and then to a piece of paper to copy anything. DS had outstanding visual perception but very erratic tracking. This meant if given a blank piece of paper he found it absolutely impossible to write his name in any sequential order on the page. He knew letters in his name, knew how it was spelt but putting on paper-impossible. Following 6 weeks reflex work, could write numbers 1-10 neatly in a line.He also found drawing self portrait impossible purely because he had no idea where eyes/feet etc were in space. Again following therapy can now confidently "touch left ear with right hand" etc and draws a bloody good drawing of a sort of person.
We are also using INPP licentiate-are you in Herts by any chance?!!

Just checked our report and Spinal Galant hasn't been addressed yet. It started at 100% and is now (after 6 months) only down to 75%.

However our biggest problem was the Moro reflex which started at 88% and is now down to 12%

Overall (averaging all the reflexes) we started at 69% in July and are now down to 32%.

(I think the scoring system is their own, but it helps to track progress...)

Having said that, we noticed results from almost day one, and are still noticing more and more improvements. We are very, very pleased with it all. DS is a diff kid, and at the moment I have no serious concerns about him at all.

I think you are unlikely to solve bed wetting straight away, but I think you will notice some improvements quickly....

But keep us all posted. :)

In the first 6 weeks:

Moro reflex went from 88% to 38%
Assymmetrical tonic went from 45% to 25%

Palmar has not improved at all yet. It is still at 75%

Thanks, IndigoBell and oddgirl. Are the exercises quite easy (reference was made to some of them possibly having to be adapted to account for ds1's hypotonia...)? And are the exercises really not too time consuming (we already have to do some exercises for the physio to improve muscular strength to help with the low muscle tone...)?

And anyone have any idea why anyone would want to use a bear face? .

jUST WONDERED WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF RETAINED REFLEXES and where have you gone to be tested etc?

Thanks

We have been doing this with a behavioural optomotrist for last 2 months. But I'm not happy with her really.

Its not been a thorough assessment and we have no information about which reflex we are inhibiting.

We've been hopping on each leg, commando crawling and doing a lying on the tummy thing where ds holds a toy out infront of him and takes it to the left side and then right, looking at it all the time.

What would these all be for?

I did them religiously for six weeks and when we went back for a reassessment she looked very briefly at what he was doing and just told me to carry on doing the same exercises for another 6 weeks.

So we have been doing this, but ds is getting very bored now and needs to move on I think.

I want to move to the sound learning centre instead.

Skewiff - sounds like the optometrist my DD has just finished it. We are going to take her to the sound learning centre now that her vision therapy has finished. It helped her eyesight definitely but it isn't a retained reflex therapy. (although that exercise is for one of the reflexes - but isn't a whole program)

Willmum - you can't really tell if your child has them without going for an expensive assessment. Either at the sound learning centre in London or with a INPP practioner.

Rabbit - exercises really are easy. They are so easy you'll never believe they're the cause of the improvement. For example DS has to touch his right hand to his left knee and then his left hand to his right knee (while sitting down with his legs out). They take about 5 - 10 mins a night.

IndigoBell- have you done the behavioural optometry then? And does your DD have a squint. My son does. Did it get rid of it? Perhaps I should complete this first and then move to the sound learning centre.

I just thought that the reflex therapy in itself might sort our his squint - perhaps this is naive ...

I've done the behaviour optometry for DD (not DS who's done so well at SLC)

It sorted out all her vision problems in 6 weeks. But she didn't have a squint. She had problems focussing her eyes and with close vision and all sorts of thing I'd never heard of.

The retained reflex therapy DS did contained some of the same eye exercises but not as many. If your DS has a squint I think you should finish the optometry first, as they are the specialist in that, and then go to SLC second.

Skewiff - My DS had a mild squint - only really apparent when he was tired, it self corrected during Reflex Therapy/Vision Therapy.

Do you not ask the therapist what areas the exercises your DS is targetting?

We sometimes ended up doing exercises for weeks on end it does get frustrating and boring for both the parent and the child, but I would persevere.

Can I ask what age do children need to be for it to be worth doing the assessment? Also what made you seek assessment in the first place?

Willmum-we started with Ds at 4 but he may have been a tad young-some reflexes dont naturally integrate until 3 years anyway-the greatest benefit for him has been more recently (now 5). If you google retained reflexes you will find a whole list of things it can help with. DS is ASD and dyspraxia and its actually his dyspraxia which made me seek help-balance, co-ordination etc. Sally Goddard Blyth has written a fab book called " Attention, Balance and Co-ordination" about retained reflexes.

Skewiff-we havent done vision therapy but would consider as DS has problems with visual tracking-its purely financially not viable for us to do both at the mo.

Rabbitstew-exercises dead simple-DS also has very poor core strength with marked hypermobility and low tone-some of the exercises are initiated by me, more simple ones by DS...log rolls etc...its actually quite clear that as exercises are pracised, children get better at them...like indigo, we do every morning-takes 10 mins
HTH

IndigoBell- where do you live, and would you mind telling me who your behavioural optomotrist was?

I just don't feel right with this one. The reason I've not asked which reflexes she is targetting is because she makes me (and my partner) feel like we are wasting her time as soon as we walk in through the door. She sort of throws me off my centre.

The BABO we went to was Blackstones in Beaconsfield. I never actually went as DH took DD.

The Sound Learning Centre did do a lot of eye exercises with DS, but not as much as Blackstones did with DD. But then of course DD has diff problems than DS....

We did about 6 weeks of vision therapy and then they signed her off and said she doesn't need her (bifocal) glasses anymore. So we're pretty pleased with that.

We now attend to take her the Sound Learning Centre next school holidays.

How log did it take for you for the TLR to stabilise?

We are doing the astronaut and 'meatball'. I am not sure what reflexes they address. Moro?

Two visits both times we were told TLR has become stronger.

Think TLR is meatball and we call it Superman not astronaut. You may find reflexes get worse before they get better. For example DS didnt test for spinal galant at all but demonstrated all the signs of retaining it (fidgeting and bedwetting). What Hemispheres did is treat it anyway-things got much worse then suddenly as if a switch had been turned off, bedwetting completely stopped one night. They reckoned they had to bring the reflex in, then retain it iyswim.Its a very long haul DebbieS-we have done 2 years so far and have just completed first cycle of Listening Programme which Hemispheres recommend you do when integrating reflexes (STNR, TLR etc) are being treated. We are getting there but sometimes it has felt like walking through treacle.
HTH

2 years oddgirl already? How much longer do they estimate you have do do them?

DS went down from 91% to 50% in less than 9 months, have another visit scheduled in Dec and I am hoping he will be below 40% as bedwetting stopped, he can swim now with no aids, behavior more in tune and as expected for 5 years old. But I am hoping to stop by the summer holidays, I am exhausted :( They say 10 mins a day but they have to be done so slow that it takes me 15-20 most days...

Debbie I dont know about the meatball, if you describe it then I may be able to guess which rr it addresses as I am doing through the slc. The astronaut is tackling the vestibular issues so def a Moro.

oddgirl - thanks. Comforting to know that slow progress is not necessarily no progress.

blueshark - meatball is lying on the floor, cross hands and legs and curl up and then uncurl.

We don't have bed-wetting issues Perhaps I should be prepared for it to come back?

In 4 months draw a person test scores jumped up 2 levels which came a big releif - some improvement we could see.

But TLR got stronger, vision, balance grew worse.

I have not seen anything go worse with DS on the 9 months, are we lucky or shall I be prepared for it?

The meatball also sounds like Moro exercise.