Integrating primitive reflexes

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done this for their ADHD child? I learned about it when we were doing vision therapy, and I am researching it further now. There are certain programs that teach the exercises but it seems like it’s a year long commitment. Has anyone tried these with success?

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of controversy (as with vision therapy) about how effective reflex integration is or whether it's pseudoscience. That said, my son's private OTA (but not his school OTs) was a proponent after having done it to herself in OT school, and she and DC would spend a few minutes on reflex integration work at the beginning of each of their sessions. We had some homework we worked on occasionally - things like stroking his hand while watching TV for a few minutes, nothing crazy. I forget how many and which primitive reflexes he had retained - there were about 4. The OTA was able to do it pretty quickly. It took maybe 4 months - and it was only a small piece of what they worked on. He has CP but did not have a specific dx at the time. I figured there was no harm to it and in our case it was a very minor time commitment.

[Anonymous]

My DD needed spinal galant reflex integrated. I thought it sounded woowoo, but my DD was unable to sit with her back to hard chair and once reflex was integrated, she could.

I used to complain, bribe her, etc. About the way she sat. Nothing would help. I didn't mention to OT as an issue, and didn't put it together until they talked about signs of uninterrupted reflex.

There was also a distinct sign of her having it on one side when they rubbed her back.

That being said, reflex came back at some point.

[Anonymous]

Our OT eval highlighted the spinal gallant reflex as well. It explained daughter's bathroom sensitivity and aversion to car seats. But it was never effectively integrated.