dyslexia | More To Grow

What is a Retained Primitive Reflex?

In order to grow safely and properly in the womb and in early life we are born with primitive reflexes. These are instinctive and aid the birthing process and survival skills such as breast feeding and grasping. As we outgrow the need for these reflexes, they are integrated into our nervous system. If children progress through the normal stages of development, they have a foundation for more complex muscle movement and cognitive tasks. Then the nervous system is ready to interact with emotional, social, physical and learning environments led by the higher functions of the brain.

Short Circuit

If a primitive reflex is retained and not integrated/inhibited, it can short circuit the higher functions of the brain, interfering with processing, learning, movement and attention. For example: Can we control our leg kicking up when the doctor hammers our knee cap (even if internally we may be shouting, “Don’t kick! Don’t kick!”)? No, because it is a reflex that takes over, short circuiting our executive brain function. The executive brain of someone with Retained Primitive Reflexes may be shouting, “Stay focused! Stay focused!” Yet, just as we cannot control our leg from kicking, this child is simply unable to control an inappropriate behavior. Unintegrated Retained Primitive Reflexes may look familiar: lack of concentration, motion sickness, poor coordination, poor bladder control, ADHD, poor writing expression, poor working memory, trouble sitting still or learning to swim, difficulty telling time, poor auditory processing, hyper sensitivity, and even being a messy eater, just to name a few. If the neurological foundation of the brain is not well ordered, it affects everything we do.

Causes

The causes of retained primitive reflexes vary: the smallest twin was more cramped in the womb, birth trauma, being in an orphanage restricted their movement, childhood illness, or simply not spending enough tummy time on the floor in each stage for each primitive reflex to be fully integrated. Trauma may also cause these to resurface.

Answers

After an evaluation of several primitive reflexes, neuro-development begins with Primitive Reflex Movement Therapy, which replicates the stages of development to strengthen neuro pathways. Sally Goddard, in Reflexes, Learning, and Behavior, says, “Most education and many remedial techniques are aimed at reaching higher centers in the brain. A Neuro-Developmental approach identifies the lowest level of dysfunction and aims therapy at that area. Once problems here have been remedied, it attempts to build links from lower to higher centers through the use of specific stimulation techniques.”

More to Grow is Based on Research

More to Grow trains families in simple exercises that can essentially modify the brain’s structure and facilitate learning by integrating and inhibiting Primitive Reflexes. When these are inhibited, the mature Postural Reflexes can be dominant. Retained Primitive Reflexes (RPRs), where they persist post-infancy, are linked to learning difficulties and the impaired ability to attain skills such as reading and writing effectively due to “ineffective interhemispheric communication”. RPRs are also linked to indicators of ADHD, which is “hypothesized to be a compensatory strategy for delayed neurological maturation”.

The cited 2020 published research “supported the earlier findings when they measured eight primitive reflexes that included: sucking, asymmetric tonic, rooting, Moro, Galant, tonic lateral and symmetrical tonic reflexes. Reflexes were measured and found that children with difficulties in learning, including those with ADHD, demonstrated a significantly higher level of RPRs compared with controls.”

Research Article: Persistent Childhood Primitive Reflex Reduction Effects on Congitive, Sensorimotor and Academic Performance in ADHD

More to Grow Cognitive Development Training strengthens weak areas of the brain and can transform our working memory, processing speed, attention, comprehension, critical thinking and communication skills that find their foundation in fully integrated primitive reflexes.

The mission of More to Grow Cognitive Development Training is to improve learning ability and function through cognitive exercises that meaningfully transfer to all educational and everyday life situations so individuals maximize their potential.

Darlene Lewis, [email protected], https://moretogrow.com

Dyslexia and Cognitive Processing

What is Dyslexia?

The decades old stereotype of dyslexia being letters that shift on the page and the reversal of b and d is not completely accurate. Check out the Latin roots: Dys means bad and lexia means read or vocabulary. Therefore, dyslexia literally means bad reading or bad vocabulary. People with reading struggles are generally weak in one or more cognitive development skills. The National Institute of Health found 88% of learning to read problems were caused by weakness in phonemic awareness which is the ability to hear, blend, dissect and manipulate sounds in words. These are complex skills that require more than the ability to hear sounds; they are auditory processing and auditory memory among many other cognitive skills, such as processing speed.

Cognitive Skills Are Necessary For Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is an umbrella term for several specific cognitive skills: auditory processing, auditory and visual memory, working memory, long term memory retrieval of vocabulary and attention that inform expressive and receptive language and reading skills. If processing speed, working memory, attention, and/or comprehension are weak, notice how they would naturally correlate to the signs of dyslexia:

Poor spelling and limited vocabulary
Struggles with reading comprehension
Difficulty with sound discrimination
Challenges distinguishing between no/on or pin/pen
Inability to sound out new or out of context words
Poor ability to summarize or retell a story
Errors in telling right from left
Frequently guesses or substitutes words
Avoids reading aloud
Early difficulty with rhyming

Phonics Instruction May Not Be Enough

The relationship between reading ability and phonemic processing is illustrated well in a study with deaf children. The National Institute of Health studied the phonological awareness, reading skills and vocabulary in profoundly deaf children who use cochlear implants and found with increased hearing they experienced better than expected reading scores. Unsurprisingly, phonological processing was higher in the children who had a better grasp of lip reading and therefore identification of syllables, a key part of phonics. In addition, a robust vocabulary had a strong correlation to reading ability. The conclusion of the study emphasized a key component beyond phonological awareness and vocabulary, which was the focus, to say, “the performance on the phonological awareness test was not simply a direct reflection of vocabulary knowledge but was also dependent on the development and use of other cognitive skills.” This indicates that teaching phonics, increasing vocabulary, and ensuring the ability to hear are necessary, but insufficient solutions for phonological awareness and therefore dyslexia. Understanding this is a crucial piece of the puzzle for parents and teachers of struggling readers. The need for “the development and use of other cognitive skills” is where cognitive development training rises to meet the need.

Cognitive Development Training

The neuroplasticity of the brain inherently means the weak areas of the brain can be strengthened. This is great news! Teaching more phonics is not how working memory and other cognitive skills are strengthened. We do not train the brain by using challenging content, like phonics for a struggling reader. The brain is better trained when it is relaxed and engaged by using familiar content. More to Grow Cognitive Development Training uses primitive reflex exercises and cognitive games to strategically strengthen the foundational neuro-developmental and cognitive developmental brain functions necessary to overcome dyslexia. This treats an underlying problem of weak cognitive development skills which display the symptom of learning to read difficulties. Training and strengthening attention, comprehension, critical thinking, working memory, auditory and visual processing speed and communication skills have benefits that extend beyond dyslexia. Increasing these vital skills may improve the ability to learn and function in all areas of educational and everyday life situations.

Dillon, Caitin M et al. “Phonological awareness, reading skills, and vocabulary knowledge in children who use cochlear implants” Journal of deaf studies and deaf education vol.17,2 (2011):205-26

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598411/

Darlene Lewis, [email protected], https://moretogrow.com