Effect of a psychoeducational intervention on motor and perceptual-visual development through the inhibition of primitive reflexes in schoolchildren aged 4 to 7 years old

Abstract

The efficacy of the Assessing Neuromotor Readiness for Learning (Blythe, 2012) on primitive reflex inhibition is described. The sample consisted of 25 girls and 21 boys aged 4–7 years (M = 4.84, SD = 1.10). For the sake of evaluating the efficacy of the intervention, the Developmental Screening by the Chester Institute of Neurophysiological Psychology, INPP (Blythe, 2012), was used by means of a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical analyses performed were ANCOVA and factorial ANOVA—depending on the fulfilment of the assumptions. The main findings refer to the existence of active primitive reflexes in the sample, and how these primitive reflexes are sensitive to the psychoeducational intervention of reflex inhibition through movement. Besides, the involvement of primitive reflex inhibition in the improvement of motor development—but not in perceptual-visual development—has been proved.