At Sense Enabled we use gentle movement based therapies to help kids and teens with sensory sensitivities to be their best selves.
All tagged Automatic Reflexes
Joshua Blatman host of Survivors2Thrivers and I talk about reflexes. In our discussion we connected how reflexes can be impacted by trauma and how their responses can help or hinder you after the fact. While improving reflex integration can’t remove the stresses of every day life (hello Covid!) it can have a positive effect on how you or a loved one react to those stresses.
Oral and facial reflexes. Who has ever even heard of such a thing?! But I am willing to bet you’ve heard or said, “don’t put that in your mouth! These reflexes rule over the mouth, tongue, lips, jaw, cheeks, palate and face. We suck, chew, swallow, gag, clench, grind, purse, smile or cry because of them. Do you grind your teeth? Suffer from migraines? Maybe you or your child gag easily, drool or struggle with speech or eating issues. All these challenges and more can be traced back to the oral / facial reflexes. Good news is they can be improved through movement-based integration activities!
Envision the brain as always running on high alert waiting for the next “attack” to take place and how exhausting that must be. It is an inefficient use of our brain’s bandwidth which contributes to a constant sense of low-level unease, anxiety that fosters depression and poor self-esteem. So when the fire alarm goes off we will either be peeling you off the ceiling then spend an hour calming you down or we’ll be prodding you out the door while pointing out the emotional upheaval going on around you.
You’ve noticed them on the playground or at the park, the little ones that are always on their toes. Maybe you’ve noticed that your child wears out the outer edges of their shoes while the inner edge looks almost like new. Cutting toenails is a big deal, the right kind of socks or shoes is imperative. And don’t even think about touching or tickling these feet because you could very well get kicked the reaction will be so strong. When the Babinski reflex is retained the arch of the foot is overly sensitive to contact so walking on the balls of the feet lessen that contact or an alternative is stomping to bypasses the tickle response.
Reflexes, everyone has them and many come to us automatically. But when they don’t in can have big impacts in how we process the world. This can result in increased anxiety, ADHD symptoms, headaches and other life impacts. Learn more about how integrating infant reflexes at any time in life can improve your quality of life.
