My name is Vicky, and I’m a speech-language pathologist and co-owner of Dynamic Therapy Specialists. Today, I want to talk to you about reflexes. Find out why they are important, why they need to integrate, and how we at DTS look at reflexes to inform the decisions that we make for intervention.

What Are Reflexes?

Reflexes are automatic responses. They are involuntary. They serve for protection and survival in early development. As infants, we are unable to voluntarily move on our own. So we’ve got a system of reflexes that will keep us protected.

If you touch the side of the baby’s face, their head will automatically turn. If a baby hears a noise, their head turns, and the baby automatically goes into reflexive movements.

Why Are Reflexes Important?

Reflexes are the foundation of learning. They are the foundation of growth and development. The brain’s primary responsibilities in the early months of life are to keep us protected and for us to survive. The early reflexes are going to be all about keeping you alive.

And then over the course of weeks, reflexes will spur on motor development because the ultimate way for us to protect and to survive is to get upright. We’ve got a system of reflexes that are going to spur on motor development. Initially, these responses are going to be from the brainstem. Something is going to trigger them, and then a specific motor response is going to happen.

Examples of Reflexes in Babies

Here’s an example of a reflex: I hear something as a baby. My head automatically turns, and my body automatically goes into a very specific motor pattern. I hear, my head turns, my arms and legs extend in a very specific way. Eventually, this is going to help the infant to figure out that they can start to reach and then turn over and crawl and eventually get us upright.

There are all kinds of reflexes. For instance, if you touch the baby’s hand at about four months of age, the baby will automatically grab. We like to say, “Oh look, it’s so sweet. The baby’s holding my hand.” While it is sweet, the baby is not doing that on purpose. It is an involuntary response that is going to spur on their development.

What Is Reflex Integration?

It is important for reflexes to integrate over time. What that means is that they are available as reflexes in the beginning for protection and survival, and as the baby grows and develops, they integrate into the system to be able to be available for later higher order thinking. They won’t be automatic actions—the baby will be able to control them.

Reflexes are the reason why infants sleep a lot in early development, because it’s exhausting to be an infant. And then at about four months of age when we’ve got some of the things necessary to keep you alive (like breathing, your heart beating, your temperature regulated, and you’re starting to get your sleep-wake cycles), that’s when you start to see the first smile from babies, where babies start to engage.

What Happens as Reflexes Start to Integrate?

When your baby gets a little older, you should start seeing some motor development, all of which is spurred on by reflex development. And as these reflexes develop over time, eventually they’re going to integrate.

You should not be able to stimulate a reflex as easily at 18 months, at 24 months, especially at five and six years, as you are able to do in early development.

Why Is Reflex Integration Important?

It’s important for reflexes to integrate over the first two years of life to support higher order thinking. Things that are reflexive eventually should turn into automatic responses. For instance, when you are standing up, when you are giving a presentation or just standing up and talking, you should not have to think about your balance. You should not have to think about being able to stay upright.

Those behaviors, those responses, should now be automatic. It should be coming from the brainstem. You shouldn’t have to be using the thinking part of your brain in order to do things like keep your balance.

When I’m sitting in a chair, I should not have to be thinking about my posture. I should not have to be thinking about not falling over. But balance is a pretty complex skill. There are lots of reflexive responses of your body that allow you to stay upright without having to think about it.

How Does the Brain Prioritize the Parts of Early Development?

In our clinic, we will recognize unintegrated reflexes in kids who are struggling with learning. This is because the way that brain prioritizes things in early development is as follows:

1. The brain’s number one priority is protection and survival. The brain wants the baby to survive.
2. Reflexes help with motor development to get the baby upright so they can keep their balance without falling over or having to think about it.
3. Then language will start to occur, which is why most children don’t learn to talk until between 12-18 months of age. That’s the natural developmental sequence of the brain.
4. Children will get into full conversations at the point at which they’re also moving around really well. That’s why children between about 3 and 4 years old start being able to use language flexibly. They start to get funny. They start to understand. They start to be able to collaborate and use their language. Their peer interactions move from playing beside kids to now they’re playing along with kids.

What Developmental Delays Can Tell You About Reflex Integration

When you are seeing things like difficulties with peer interactions, focus and attention, behavior, and emotional regulation, it’s a sign of unintegrated reflexes.

In our clinic, we are going to first look at reflex integration because we want to see if the child is truly having a difficulty with these areas, or if the trouble is the foundation of reflexes that haven’t integrated to support these abilities.

Certain Difficulties Are Not Always a Sign of Unintegrated Reflexes

I am a neurotypical, highly functioning individual. However, if I get tired enough, hot enough, hungry enough, or dizzy, I will get easily frustrated. I will have a difficult time focusing and attending. I might say something that I don’t mean. I might cry or have an emotional meltdown.

It’s not because I have social difficulties or a language disorder. I might have those things. However, when we have a difficult time with the things that should be integrated into our system, we can’t access those skills. When reflexes are unintegrated, we can see difficulties in these higher-order abilities that may or may not be attributed to a true diagnosis of ADHD, language disorder, or a reading difficulty.

But we at least want to look at these things. We want to look at their reflexes, and their language skills, and their literacy skills. We don’t want to assume that, because a child is having trouble with peer interactions, they must have a social communication difficulty, or that they must have ADHD if they’re having focus and attention difficulties. Because what if they have reflexes that aren’t integrated and aren’t supporting them at the level in which they should, which is causing them to look like they have attention difficulties?

Call Dynamic Therapy Specialists for an Evaluation

At DTS, we specialize in reflex integration. Our OTs, speech language pathologists, and audiologists all have reflex training. We all understand the importance of this foundational piece, which is why we look at these foundational reflexes first.

Reflex integration supports motor development, and that motor development supports language development. All of these areas work together in order to optimally develop the child.

If your child is struggling with movement, language, focus, or any other challenges, give us a call at (225) 767-5032 to schedule an evaluation with our specialists.