Persistence Of Primitive Reflexes Research Articles

Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: Persistence of Primitive Reflexes and Related Motor Activity Issues

To identify which primitive reflex is higher and its associated problem with motor performance in children with ADHD.14 children with ADHD (4–6 years old) from pediatric clinic of Surat were checked for the presence of the asymmetric tonic neck reflex, symmetric tonic neck reflex, tonic labyrinthine reflex, Palmer, Galant, and Moro reflex test method given by sally Goddard. Motor skills were checked with the motor proficiency test (MOT 4–6 test) in those18 tasks. A child with ADHD has reflex activity in the following areas: ATNR right (42.9%), Galan right (21.4%), STNR extension (28.6%), and Moro (35.7%). Motor skills are inversely related to retained permeative reflex. ADHD Children with increased reflex activity facing difficulty on the MOT test. This study shows that ADHD symptoms are closely linked with persistence of primitive reflexes. The association between persisting primitive reflexes and motor skills suggests that ADHD symptoms may represent a compensation for unfinished developmental phases related to declining reflexes.

Are Immature Neuromotor Skills Significant Factors in Educational Under-achievement and Special Educational Needs? Literature review of the role of Primitive Reflexes as Indicators and Measures of Neuromotor Immaturity

An overview of research carried out in the last eighteen years investigating the incidence of immature neuromotor skills in children of pre-school and school age; the impact of immature neuromotor status on educational achievement and the influence of daily movement programmes on neuromotor status. Based on published material and independently commissioned reports, the literature indicates that persistence of primitive reflexes is associated with a range of presenting difficulties which include: educational under-achievement; attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD); developmental language disorder; emotional and behavioural issues; visual perception and poverty related differences in physical literacy.Evaluation of intervention programmes indicated that specific developmental movement programmes can help to reduce signs of neuromotor immaturity improving the physical basis for motor related aspects of classroom learning and poverty related differences in physical literacy skills.

Neurological outcomes of congenital Zika syndrome in toddlers and preschoolers: a case series

Congenital Zika syndrome causes a spectrum of neurological symptoms with varying effects on function that require different therapeutic strategies. To date, this spectrum of effects and its clinical implications have not been completely described. We describe the neurological examination findings in toddlers and preschoolers, including predominant symptom complexes and comorbidities. This study is a case-series neurological evaluation of 75 children with congenital Zika syndrome in Campina Grande, Brazil. The study is part of a cohort of children with congenital Zika syndrome that started in 2015 and is still ongoing. Children with Zika virus infection detected during pregnancy (mothers exhibited rash and were followed and diagnosed by fetal ultrasound abnormalities or RT-PCR) or through microcephaly screening after birth, using Intergrowth 21 guidelines, were selected by laboratory and radiological criteria. Children were examined during a 10-day period in September, 2018, and underwent neurological interview, examination, and assessment of functional outcomes and comorbidities. Children were divided in groups of predominant corticospinal or neuromuscular clinical signs and the associations between these groups and clinical comorbidities were assessed. All of the children recruited to the study from Nov 29, 2015 to Nov 30, 2017 had imaging correlates of congenital Zika syndrome. Children were assigned to groups depending on the signs exhibited, either corticospinal or neuromuscular, with or without dyskinetic signs. 75 children completed the evaluation, 38 (51%) girls and 37 (49%) boys. Median age was 33 months (range 26-40 months; IQR 29-34). Microcephaly was present at birth in 56 (75%) children, and 19 (25%) children were born with normal head circumference, 15 of whom later developed microcephaly. Neurological examination grouped four children as having isolated dyskinetic signs, 48 children were assigned to the corticospinal group and 23 into the neuromuscular group. Dyskinetic findings were present in 30 (40%) children, either alone (four [5%]) or combined with corticospinal (19 [40%] of 48) or neuromuscular (seven [30%] of 23) findings. Comorbidities were highly prevalent, and the neuromuscular group had worse functional outcomes, evaluated by gross motor function (p=0·026), manual abilities (p=0·0013), and communication function (p<0·0005) classification scales, than the corticospinal group, whereas pneumonia (p<0·0005) and urinary tract infections (p<0·0005) were more frequent in the corticospinal group. Cortical hyperexcitability was supported by several clinical correlates, such as early onset epilepsy, persistence of primitive reflexes, and dystonia. We describe distinct neurological profiles in the congenital Zika syndrome spectrum, with functional outcomes tending to correlate with these groups. The clinical division of children based on the disease signs proposed here is supported by the literature on central and peripheral nervous system pathology in congenital Zika syndrome. The high prevalence of dyskinetic symptoms merits special attention. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development and by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel.

Перзистенција на примитивни рефлекси и асоцирани проблеми кај децата

Перзистенција на примитивни рефлекси и асоцирани проблеми кај децата

Persistence of primitive reflexes and associated problems in children

Persistence of primitive reflexes and associated problems in children

Persistent primary reflexes affect motor acts: Potential implications for autism spectrum disorder

In typical motor development progress in use of goal-directed actions and communicative gestures depends on the inhibition of several primitive reflexes, especially those that involve the hand or mouth. This study explored the relationship between the persistence of primitive reflexes that involve the hand or mouth and the motor repertoire in a sample of 12- to 17-month-old infants. Moreover, since children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often have difficulty in performing skilled movements and show poor gesture repertoire, and since ASD represents the upper extreme of a constellation of traits that may be continuously distributed in the general population, we investigated the relationship between the persistence of primitive reflexes in the same sample of infants and the subclinical autistic traits measured in their parents. Results revealed that the persistence of the primitive reflexes correlated with motor repertoire irrespective of infant’s age, and it was greater among infants whose parents had more subclinical autistic traits. Our findings suggest that the persistence of primitive reflexes might alter the developmental trajectory of future motor ability and therefore their evaluation might be an early indicator of atypical development.

Persistence of primitive reflexes and associated motor problems in healthy preschool children.

IntroductionRetained primitive reflexes can disturb natural development and involve difficulties in social and educational children’s life. They can also impact on psychomotor development. Mature responses in a child’s psychomotor progress can only occur if the central nervous system itself has reached maturity. The process consist the transition made from brain stem reflex response to cortically controlled response. This study define the occurrence of primitive reflexes in healthy 4–6 years old children and analyze the impact of survived primitive reflexes on psychomotor development.Material and methodsThe study involved 35 participants aged 4–6 years healthy preschool children. The study tools were: primitive reflexes tests by Sally Goddard for children and Motor Proficiency – Test (MOT 4–6 test) in 18 tasks.ResultsOver a half (65%) preschool children had survived the primitive reflexes on the residual level. Eleven percent of them had no retained primitive reflexes. According to the psychomotor ability, 9% of the children were in the category of “altered development”, 29% in “delayed development”, 59% in “normal” and 3% in “very good development”. The greater the severity of the reflex, the motor efficiency was lower (p < 0.05).ConclusionsIt seems reasonable to introduce reflexes integration therapy in children’s with low psychomotor skills. Primitive reflexes routinely tested, can contribute to improved early psychomotor development in children with needs, thus preventing many difficulties which children can encounter within their social and school life.

The relationship between poor motor skills and neurodevelopmental disorders

Approximately six percent of all children are regarded as having poor motor skills, though the aetiology may vary. Furthermore, the severity of motor skill problems predicts the increased likelihood of coexisting problems. This suggests that motor problems per se could be regarded as a specific vulnerability sign. In an era of managed health care, pay for performance, and focus on discrete diagnostic entities, motor skill problems have been greatly overlooked in treatment programs and psychiatric research. Recently however, Gillberg argued against such compartmentalized thinking and proposed that any preschool child with major problems (regarding general development, communication, language, social interrelatedness, attention, activity, behaviour, mood, sleep, or motor coordination) should be assessed for additional problems because these are likely to exist and are intercorrelated. With this in mind, Gillberg introduced the concept Early Symptomatic Syndromes Eliciting Neurodevelopmental Clinical Examinations (ESSENCE). Children with poor motor skills have a three-fold risk of being bullied, and bully victimization often coincides with poor social skills. This suggests that coordination, crucial for motor skills, may also be crucial for the development of social skills and that the cerebellum is of central interest. The notion that the cerebellum is purely a motor control device is not supported in the stroke literature. Cerebellar lesions can result in a cognitive affective syndrome including executive, visuospatial, and linguistic impairments, and affective dysregulation. The cerebellum is involved in temporal information processing, motor sequencing and planning, working memory, shifting of attention, implicit learning, emotional regulation and responses, and executive functions, areas that are highly affected in people with neurodevelopmental disorders. Also, abnormalities in the cerebellum are a consistent finding in imaging studies of individuals with autism spectrum disorders. In an interesting study, Livingstone and McPhillips show that children with partial hearing experience significant motor deficits. Moreover, the results suggest that children with cochlear inplants may be at particular risk where more complex motor control is required, as compared to children with hearing aids. The conventional vestibular deficit theory that states that motor problems in a child with partial hearing originate in a damaged or poorly functioning vestibular system is questioned by the authors. Instead they put forward that other sensory systems could be involved, and constraints in motor development could originate in a dynamic interaction between the level of hearing impairment, the task, and development. Not only children with partial hearing or with pervasive developmental disorders are at risk of impaired motor control; this is also the case in children with obesity, dyslexia, and emotional or behaviour problems. Conversely, children with motor coordination problems have high rates of internalizing disorders and attention-defiict–hyperactivity disorder. Insight into these relationships suggests, hypothetically, that motor skill training could increase performance not only in motor skills but influence other areas as well. This is supported by a study of persistence of primitive reflexes, particularly the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex (ATNR), which is highly persistent in children with specific reading problems. Repetition of primary-reflex movement training 10 minutes daily, for 12 months, not only attenuated the ATNR but improved reading. Moreover, in children in mainstream schools persistence of ATNR predicted reading and mathematical abilities, in addition movement training improved the academic results. Considering that the border between normality and pathology is blurred, overlapping conditions in psychiatry are often the rule and may reflect atypical brain development; internalizing and motor coordination problems are associated, and ‘clumsy’ children are less likely to participate in activities which require good motor skills. Thus, the impact of motor control and motor training are worthy of rigorous longitudinal studies in various groups in future research.

The potential role for emergence in autism

Although most research on autistic behavior has considered autism categorically, the increasingly apparent genetic and phenotypic complexities of autism are prompting a more dimensional approach to this area. The long-standing interest in a less categorical approach is made clear from a review of literature. The accumulating empirical support for viewing autism-related phenomena as separable and fractionable is outlined and includes data indicating that many of the behaviors occur in isolation in family members and the general population, are not highly correlated within individuals, and appear to be inherited separately. However, it is emphasized that some of the most common and characteristic phenomena observed in individuals diagnosed with autism do not run in their families. It is suggested that these novel, "emergent," phenomena may arise in the individual from interacting configurations of co-occurring traits or from the interaction of genetic and biological factors underlying the traits. A number of autism-related phenomena including intellectual disability, seizures, persistence of primitive reflexes, stereotypies, self-injurious behavior, savant abilities, and morphological abnormalities, among others, are discussed as potentially being emergent. It is concluded that consideration of the role of emergence in autistic behavior and related phenomena should complement a reductionist approach and might help illuminate the components and complexities of autism.

Prevalence of primitive reflexes and the relationship with cognitive change in healthy adults

Primitive reflexes (PR) generally disappear early in life but may reappear later, in which case they are often associated with chronic neurological conditions, such as dementia or Parkinson's disease. Studies have shown that the presence of PRs may be indicative of both the severity and rate of progression of these diseases and may be the result of disinhibition of cortical networks. The association between PRs and cognitive function in usual ageing is unclear. We investigated whether the occurrence, amplitude, and persistence of four nociceptive (glabbelar tap, palmomental, pollicomental, and snout reflexes), three prehensile reflexes (suck, palmar grasp, and rooting), and two other reflexes (mouth open finger-spread and nuchocephalic reflexes) were related to performance in specific cognitive domains in normal ageing individuals. Four-hundred and seventy normal aging participants (25-82 years) in the Maastricht Aging Study (MAAS), were included in the study. They were neurologically and cognitively screened at baseline and were retested after 3 (only individuals aged 50 years and older at baseline) and 6 years. The prevalence of most PRs increased with age: 47% of men aged 25-45 years had at least one PR, compared with 73% of men aged 65-85 year (p = 0.002). In women these percentages were 51 and 75, respectively (p=0.008). The prevalence, amplitude, and persistence of PRs were unrelated to cognition at baseline or at the 3- or 6-year follow-up. The prevalence of particularly nociceptive reflexes rises substantially with increasing age in normal individuals. However, the presence of PRs cannot be considered to be a marker of cognitive decline in normal aging individuals.

Audit or research? A personal view

In typical motor development progress in use of goal-directed actions and communicative gestures depends on the inhibition of several primitive reflexes, especially those that involve the hand or mouth. This study explored the relationship between the persistence of primitive reflexes that involve the hand or mouth and the motor repertoire in a sample of 12- to 17-month-old infants. Moreover, since children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often have difficulty in performing skilled movements and show poor gesture repertoire, and since ASD represents the upper extreme of a constellation of traits that may be continuously distributed in the general population, we investigated the relationship between the persistence of primitive reflexes in the same sample of infants and the subclinical autistic traits measured in their parents. Results revealed that the persistence of the primitive reflexes correlated with motor repertoire irrespective of infant’s age, and it was greater among infants whose parents had more subclinical autistic traits. Our findings suggest that the persistence of primitive reflexes might alter the developmental trajectory of future motor ability and therefore their evaluation might be an early indicator of atypical development.