Telltale signs
Some of the telltale signs of retained reflexes
| Gross Motor | Difficulty riding a bike |
Lack of sports skills |
Prone to clumsiness | Awkward running style |
|
Fine Motor |
Difficulty with buttons and shoelaces |
Awkward pencil grip | Poor handwriting | Immature drawing |
|
Vision |
Looses place easily when reading |
Slow at copying |
Difficulty catching balls confidently |
Difficulty remembering things in order |
|
Emotional |
Over anxious and fearful of failure |
Poor social skills and low self esteem |
Dislike of change, likes routine |
Sensitive to loud noises |
|
Learning |
Poor reading and spelling skills |
Poor expression of thoughts on paper |
Short term memory difficulties | Disorganised and lagging behind peers in reading, writing, spelling and comprehension |
Other indicators can be:
- A history of occupational therapy or speech therapy
- Crawling late or failure to crawl
- Late development of walking
- Bedwetting (sometimes)
Retained reflexes and learning challenges
The challenges of retatined reflexes are clearly seen in the classroom, children struggle to keep up with the rest of their class and behavioural difficulties can arise. Children can just get by or only succeed with great effort. Children with retained reflexes are at risk of behaviour and attitude problems, mostly due to years of sheer frustration.
Children with reflex challenges grow into adults with reflex challenges. This can limit their career choices or force them to have to work extremely hard in order to succeed. The children most able to cope develop skills to compensate. Compensation takes effort and energy, as those with retained reflexes may simply run out of energy when stressed and this leaves them less able to cope.
As we age we have less energy to compensate with and reflexes begin to reappear in reverse order. As this happens frustrations emerge due to the huge effort required to do daily tasks.
