I have been trying to research the primitive reflex dx as much as I can but most sites that I have seen are related to businesses that seem to be promoting what they can do for it. I have not been able to find anything that seems legit. His pediatrician nor any of the 3 PA's that also work there have heard of "retained" primitive reflexes.
When he has his Occupational Therapy he works on things like: tying his shoes (he can do this but with great difficulty), throwing a ball in the air and catching it, handwriting, sequencing and exercises that help strengthen his hand and fingers. Well, so far that is what he has worked on. We are new to this process and have only been 4 times.
As far as the Physical Therapy goes, she starts off doing exercises to relax him. She says that he is a huge sensory seeker. They work on things such as the toe walking, posture (he stands with his shoulders curved in and his shoulder blades in a winged position), the way he sits (which is in a W position), ect.
Both the ot and pt give me "homework" every week...handwriting, throwing a ball, reflex exercises, etc.
I don't get to see the actual therapy sessions. The therapist calls me into the room when they are done and gives me a run-down of what they did. Part of me hates that because I am the kind of parent that wants to be right there knowing EXACTLY what is going on but another part of me knows that may be best because my ds usually acts better for others when I am not present.
After the initial pt eval the therapist gave me a detailed print out of her assessment. With every aspect that she looked at my ds was lacking in every single one of them. He has issues with every primitive reflex, posture, muscle tone, balance, coordination...can't walk a straight line, can't do a sit up, push up, jumping jack..to name a few right off the top of my head. He still can't swim on his own, can't hold up a baseball bat & can't ride a bike without training wheels.
It's really heartbreaking for me to watch him struggle to keep up with other kids his age. Intellectually he is far beyond most kids his age so they don't understand the way he thinks therefore, they think he is weird and don't want to play with him. Then add on top of it all his physical struggles and that makes it 10X worse.
