retained reflexes and proprioceptive exercises-help pls

[oddgirl]

Hi
have posted this once already but Totalchaos kindly suggested I re-posted with a different title so hopefully will get more responses!
I am new on here & so forgive any mistakes!
I have 4 year old DS with verbal & motor dyspraxia who is running into problems in reception with behaviour/concentration/distractibility. Good support at school & good speech therapy and very erratic OT therapy.
I have been seeing an INPP practitioner since Sept to help with DS retained reflexes and proprioception and just wanted any advice/experience others had had with reflex inhibition and improved behaviour and how long results took.
His speech and language have improved dramatically since starting reflex inhibition but would like to see calmer DS emerge if poss!!
Thanks in advance

My friends son (11 with aspergers) has been doing exercises for retained reflexes for about 9 months.
No idea how it works, but he is certainly calmer, and more part of things now. He also seems more coordinated when he moves.

He also did a course of therapeutic listening (similar to The Listening Programme') through the same OT and that really improved his conversations.

So keep on doing those exercises...

Ooh - no advice but very interested as DS1 (8 with dyspraxia) is due to see an INPP practitioner for the first time next week. His behaviour isn't an issue but I'm really hoping it will improve his focus and processing abilities along with his coordination,

Ooo that's interesting.

Our ds2 has cp and has just turned 3. We've been doing Vojte therapy with him for 18 months with amazing results. (He's finally following a development curve - albeit a little over 2 years behind his peers.)

Has been a gradual process for us, but every so often he'll take a slightly bigger step forward than the usual slowly slowly approach and it really strikes you.

I've also found it really interesting how the peripheral things have improved as well - eye contact, control of his voice, ability to close his mouth properly, shape of his rib cage ...

Hope it gets you the results you're looking for.

I found exercises produced a massive improvement in motor planning and speech and language really quite quickly...also much improved fine and gross motor skills...let me know how you go sphil...would be really interested.
I am going to start some sound therapy as its supposed to help with focus and one of DS main problems is an inability to filter our extarneous visual and verbal stimuli-a nightmare in a reception class as I am sure you can appreciate...!!!

What is INPP?

Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology (I think!)

Improving - I've often wondered about doing some listening therapy and/or behavioural optometry with DS1 - will see what the INPP therapist thinks.

Oddgirl - I really hope I haven't left it too late to really make an impact on Ds1's development. You've started very young with your DS, which is great.

sphil

listening therapy has been really helpful- did it for about 6 months, and at the end really saw improvement.

vision therapy also sounds good, but more expensive i htink.

also now investigating starting casein free, gluten free diet

Thats really interesting improvingslowly-the INPP practitioner says listening should help with DS speech (his articulation is very poor) as well as with concentration and attention skills-was that your experience?
Sphil-we are also thinking of behavioural optometry so let me know what your INPP says about this.
YomellamoHelly-that is great news-gives me hope we will see some behaviour changes too-we too have found that DS has had bigger than expected leaps in development following changes in exercises.
Let me know how you all go

By the way Sphil-sure its not too late-many INPP pratitioners suggest treatment is very good on over 7 year olds and in fact DS tretament course will probably be extended as there are some exercises we cant address yet as he is young-best of luck!

yomellamoHelly, that is v interesting - we also do vojta therapy with my ds who is 13 months and has cp - I have never heard of anyone else doing it! Do you by any chance also go to Kiki's for it? Anyway I am glad to hear you are having such good results, we also think that it has good results although it is always hard to know what is actually having an effect and what is ds himself just slowly figuring things out!

Sorry for thread hijack btw.

Maybe we could keep this thread going and compare notes? Ds1's appt isn't until the 20th, so I might be quiet for a while but will definitely update afterwards.

good plan sphil-we are due next appointment on 26th so would be good to hear how you go as well!

badkitty - Yes we do! Got lots of hassle off ds2's "team" for travelling all the way over there so often, but it's not as if they've ever offered much themselves and has been well worth the money in our opinion. Don't think anyone appreciates how what a commitment it is for the parents though and those that have witnessed me doing it are usually horrified by the whole process and usually go and hide until it's over. (Ds2 likes a good fight.) Ho hum!
Sorry for the hijack oddgirl!

No worries-its all really interesting so hijack away...!

hi there have only just seen this thread.

Ds2 is 5 and has been doing exercises for retained spinal Galant reflex since early Nov. I wrote about it on a thread here a while back. I think it's really made a difference to his urinary incontinence Although we still don't get many dry days in a row, at least we are getting some. I mentioned it to his neurologist at the appt last week, and she felt his lumbar region and he didn't squirm at all so I think the exercises have made a significant difference in just a few months.

I hadn't even heard of retained reflexes or INPP until the OT talked about them. It's fascinating stuff!

He also started Therapeutic Listening at Christmas time and it's hard to tell whether it's made a difference yet. He was great over Christmas, but then really distractible and oppositional a couple of days before school started. As always, it's hard to tell what the major factors are!

I have just remembered that I noticed he was being far less rough with his baby brother over Christmas, and doing far less mouthing of things, which may have been the therapeutic listening or maybe because I had more time to do brushing and joint compression. That's kind of gone out of the window right now. It's so hard to fit everything into the day...

It is a shame that it is left to people to find out about things like exercises to help retained reflexes and the various listening therapies on your own....because for whatever reason they do really help.

mummypig - it took quite a long time to see any effect from the therapeutic listening. but it has certainly helped.

Thanks improvingslowly, we will stick at it. Have two new CDs now and he seems to like them better than the last one, so I don't have to deal with him taking the headphones off several times a session!

This probably sounds stupid - but where do you get the CDs for this program ? Are they only available as part of a specialist program or can you buy them anywhere ?

The sensationalkidsOT site says the CDs cost about $40 to $80 each!! Our OT lends them out to us but we still have to pay a nominal amount for each one (just to make sure we don't nick it I suppose). You also need special headphones to make sure they are getting the full range of frequencies.

There's more info on www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/therapeutic-listening.html and www.sensationalkidsot.com.au/TherapeuticListening.htm

friends exercises were for tonic neck (?) and were crawling based. i think you are in bristol - i wonder if they do them at the therapy space in bristol? www.therapyspacebristol.co.uk/index.html

(we did not buy the cds, just borrowed them at small charge.)

i would not think you would get the cds frm the library becasuse they seem to come via OTs unless you buy them outright, and need someone monitoring how it is going. EASE cds.

dont know if bibic can help with the retained refelxes ?

bump

(coz I would also like to find out how it's done)