Understanding Primitive Reflexes

Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Parenting Brief. I’m your host, Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez, an Arizona working mom and chief of the Office of Children’s Health at the Arizona Department of Health Services. As a professional, I get to work with parenting experts and I’m constantly learning from them, and that’s why we’re here to bring that information directly to you.

Primitive reflexes like how your baby automatically grabs your finger when you touch their palm, or how they startle when there’s a sudden change in their environment, help your kids grow and thrive. Today we’re talking about what you need to know about these reflexes and how they impact your child’s development.

We are here with Dr. Karen Pryor. She has a doctorate in physical therapy and is a primitive reflex expert. Can you give us a background, an explanation as to [00:01:00] what are primitive reflexes and why are they called that? 

Dr. Karen Pryor: They’re called primitive reflexes because they are in the primitive area of the nervous system, which you have a cortex that’s the outer covering of the brain.

You have a middle area, which is the mammal brain sometimes called, and then you have a brain stem, which is the very bottom of the central nervous system and above the spinal cord. The um, primitive reflexes are initially seen in newborns and then they go in the background. Now lemme say that you still have primitive reflexes.

Uh, if there is an injury, they show back up because the brain strives to survive. 

Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: What do those reflexes actually look like? 

Dr. Karen Pryor: Well, that’s a huge question and uh, I’ll be glad to [00:02:00] go into that for the next 18 hours. But, uh, the, uh, some reflexes are, well, reflexes are always demonstrated with high tone. So if your child or someone you know.

The hand is in a fist or it’s drawn up to their chest. If they look up and they always fall backwards with their hands besides their head, that’s a Moro reflex. Uh, fencers pose that they look down an extended arm and the other hand is fisted toward their chest. They also have some patterns of leg movements that go along with that.

They may have symmetrical tonic neck. That symmetrical means the same on both sides, so they may, if the child looks down, they may have their. Uh, balled up fist toward their chest, it’s hard for them to extend their [00:03:00] arms. Most of the children that have, we call it a obligatory primitive reflex, that means they’re obliged to do it no matter what.

Uh, they can’t bring their hands to midline. They can’t hold a toy on both hands. They can’t have a toy in one hand and switch it over to the other. Um. So maybe that will help. And you can look on the internet and see lots of pictures of primitive reflexes. 

Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: You mentioned that one of the ways to tell, um, might be high tone or low tone.

In indicating whether or not these ref, these reflexes are still present, what does tone actually mean for parents who may be unfamiliar, um, with that language? 

Dr. Karen Pryor: Sometimes it’s called spasticity. In all primitive reflexes, it means like a resistance for the child to be able to move. [00:04:00] It feel like it’s difficult.

For example, if their arm is bent and their hand is to their, their hands. It’s difficult to open them. Or it’s difficult to pull their hand away from their chest. Or it may be that their leg is straight and extended and it’s difficult to bend their knee. I’ve had some patients that they say, my child’s legs are so tight and crossed that I can’t change their diaper without help. So those tight legs are also part of a primitive reflex. So if they have low tone, that’s not an indication of retained primitive reflex.

It’s almost always high tone, and over my 45 plus years of experience, I have never had a patient that had low tone that demonstrated a primitive reflex, only [00:05:00] spastic or high tone or resistance to movement. 

Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: If parents have more questions or want more information on this topic, um, do you have any suggestions on where to go to access resources on this information?

Dr. Karen Pryor: The CDC has a list of primitive reflexes. You’ll see primitive reflexes listed on the internet of what to look for and what kind of patterns they look like, and you’ll be able to readily identify what that looks like in your child or your friend’s child. And, um, I. Also can do additional meetings with you to do like question and answer from parents if they have some.

Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to follow the show for more child and family health [00:06:00] resources. Until next time. This is Jessica. You’ve got this.