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What in the world do primitive reflexes have to do with reading?

That’s the question we’re digging into in this episode.

Over the last three episodes, you’ve heard Christine share her daughter’s story, from years of struggling with reading to finally becoming a confident reader. Then, in Part 3, we talked about what happened when her daughter came back to work on retained primitive reflexes, or RPR, and Christine began noticing changes in areas that had continued to be difficult even after her daughter could read.

Now we’re taking a deeper look at RPR itself.

What are primitive reflexes? Why does the body have them in the first place? What does it mean when a reflex is retained? And what could the nervous system, movement, balance, body awareness, attention, and development possibly have to do with a child who is struggling to read, write, or spell?

In this episode, Christine and I talk through the basics of primitive reflexes and some of the things we’ve learned as we’ve incorporated RPR into Vision Reading Academy. We talk about the “dimmer switch” analogy I use with our students, the connection between the nervous system and the rest of the body, and why we believe it’s important to look beyond one isolated symptom when a child is struggling.

We also talk about something I think parents need to hear: a child doesn’t necessarily have to have an obvious history of missed developmental milestones for there to be more to explore. Christine shares what she noticed with her own children, and I share some of my own family’s experience as we talk about how differently children can respond to the things they experience.

Most importantly, this episode is about asking a bigger question.

Instead of only asking, “Why is this child struggling to read?” what happens when we start asking, “What else is their body telling us?”

There is still a lot being studied and learned about retained primitive reflexes, but emerging research has found associations between persistent primitive reflexes and areas of motor and cognitive development, including reading and spelling. This is one of the reasons I continue digging into the research as we learn more about how all of these pieces may fit together.

If you’ve ever felt like there has to be another piece to your child’s puzzle, this is an episode you’ll want to hear.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.