General strategies to help children with retained infant reflexes

  • Encourage the child to drink water frequently.
  • Develop and follow a routine to help the child feel more secure.
  • Do your best to build confidence and encourage a ‘can do’ approach. Using positive language helps enormously here, for example, say ‘do your best’ rather than’ try harder’.
  • Understand that some tasks, such as copying, are very difficult for the child.
  • Understand that a child who is fidgety, easily distracted or has poor posture is not being deliberately difficult – they are being controlled by their unintegrated infant reflexes.
  • Keep instructions simple as children with retained reflexes may not be able to hold more than two things they are asked to do.
  • Give plenty of opportunities for movement.
  • Movement is crucial to enable the integration of the primitive reflexes and allow the creation of new movement patterns that will influence the development of new pathways in the brain. 

Movements to help integrate retained reflexes

  • Crawling
  • Creeping
  • Bear walking
  • Jumping
  • Hopping
  • Spinning
  • Rolling
  • Climbing
  • Balancing
  • Cross lateral movements
  • Eye tracking exercises
  • Finger and finger thumb exercises
  • Playing marbles or ‘jacks’
  • Beanbag games
  • Rhythm work – music and movement programmes