Identify retained primitive reflexes

Case study

Cassey was a great cause of concern for her teacher as she would always turn her paper to an angle of about 180 degrees to write. She also had really poor handwriting and found it extremely hard to follow anything without using a finger or marker to track the words. Many hours of handwriting practice, reading trying not to use a marker to follow and correcting the positioning of paper and books proved fruitless. Primitive Reflex: Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex.

How to help: It became very clear that Cassey could not cross her midline; that is, she could not write using her right hand when the paper was in front of the left side of her body. In very young children this reflex is seen when they move an object or toy to the middle of their bodies holding it in their right hand. When the toy crosses over the midline, the left hand will be used to move the toy. Exercises helping develop these skills can be slowly introduced to help develop this skill. Poor eye tracking can be developed by using tracking book exercises or games, as well as some specific movement work. Forcing a child to practice handwriting without dealing with the real problems just causes frustration and loss of self-confidence.

Discusion

Following these two case studies, can you identify individual children in your educational setting who may well have these motor difficulties? Identify what their difficulties are and discuss with a colleague whether motor problems may be the cause.