hey everyone we are here today to share some quick activities that you can do with your kiddo to give you a simple idea of whether or not they have retained primitive reflexes we're going to look at six different permitted reflexes and just give you a quick way to check them out and we'll go from there so the first one is the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex and we often refer to it as the atnr so the simple activity that you're going to do is you're going to have your child crawl forwards on their hands and knees while they also turn their head from one side to the other now what we're looking for is when they turn their head to one side let's say they're going to turn their head to their right and we're going to watch to see if their left elbow collapses or flexes and you're gonna just watch for some other associated movements throughout their trunk or their legs if your child is able to very easily crawl forwards and turn their head from side to side without any major associated movements then this reflex might be integrated we do go into more detail in our primitive reflex digital course if you want to learn how to test and some more activities that you can do to work on integration okay the second one is the symmetrical tonic neck reflex and this one's also known as the stnr and this one looks like the cat cow yoga exercise so what we're going to look for is the child lifting their head looking up at the sky and then looking down between their knees and what we will notice if they might have this retained or if the reflex hasn't gone away is that when they are looking up to the sky their weight is going to shift back and if they look down at their knees then their weight is going to shift forward or their elbows might collapse now if this reflex is integrated you're not going to notice these associated movements when they look up and look down it's going to be very fluid they're going to naturally flow through that yoga flow and that cat cow movement without any trouble now if you do notice some of these associated movements while they're doing this exercise and you want to learn more you can check out our primitive reflex digital course and you'll get a lot of ideas in that course so the next one is the morrow reflex and this is a common one that we are familiar with in infancy because it's also known as the startle reflex so all you need is a therapy ball or a yoga ball you can also do this over the back of the couch but you're going to have your child lay upside down over the ball and if this reflex is unintegrated you're going to notice they really struggle they might startle they might completely refuse to lay upside down they're going to be really uncomfortable in that position so if you want to learn more about how to integrate that reflex as well as proper testing protocols then check out our primitive reflex digital course now if they lay back over that ball and it's easy they love it no problems that reflex might be integrated [Music] okay the next one is the spinal gallant reflex and for this one we're going to do an activity called sit walks which sounds like you're walking along while you're sitting and it kind of is but there's a little bit of coordination that goes into it there's a lot of coordination so we're going to have the child sit in a long sit position on their bum and we are going to walk with our bum one cheek at a time so we're gonna lift the cheek and slide is what we like to say and if this reflex is integrated and it's gone away and it's looking good then it's gonna be really easy to do this motion but if it isn't integrated then we're going to see a lot of compensation trunk rotation twisting side to side poor posture and challenges with even just maintaining that long sit position so if you do notice some of these challenges while your child's completing the sit walks you can check out our primitive reflex digital course to learn more about this reflex all right the next one is the tonic labyrinthine reflex and we commonly refer to this as the tlr now the activity for this one is a pretty common one it's called the superman so you're gonna have your child lay on their stomach and at the same time they're gonna lift their arms and legs up off the ground keeping them straight now what we'll notice if the reflex is integrated is this motion is going to be easy to do they're going to lift their arms and legs symmetrically off the ground and they're going to be able to hold it for 30 to 45 seconds no problem if it's unintegrated your child is going to really struggle with this exercise they're going to not be able to hold it for very long you're going to see a lot of movement in their arms and legs they might not be able to even lift their arms and legs up off the floor yes so if you want to learn more about this reflex how to test it and some more activities to do to integrate this reflex to make it go away because we don't want them to be holding on to these reflexes then check out our primitive reflex digital course okay the last one is the palmer grasp reflex and this one is often associated with handwriting challenges so that's a good sign that you might want to check this one out so if the reflex is integrated it's not present then the child is going to be able to go through these finger movements with fluidity and ease now if the reflex is unintegrated and still present you're going to notice a lot of associated movements in maybe the body or the mouth during these finger movements you might notice some confusion during these finger movements and those are all signs that that reflex is still present so if you do think that your child has a retained palmer grasp reflex it's definitely worthwhile to check it out and work on integrating that reflex to make your life a little bit easier [Music] [Music] so if you tried any of these activities and you loved them you thought they were really helpful then tag us on social media and let us know and if you have any questions feel free to send us a message send us an email and ask away you can find us on social media at harkla underscore family or at all things sensory podcast [Music] you