Vision Professionals Love Rhythmic Movements & Reflex Integration

Greetings Vision professionals and parents!

Here you will get information and research about the relationship between retained primitive reflexes and visual processing issues, and about infant rhythmic movements and how they can help with vision challenges.

Important Note for Parents: While helpful, these neurodevelopmental movements are not a substitute for vision therapy. If you suspect visual issues, an eye exam by a qualified developmental optometrist is always recommended.

How do innate rhythmic movements work to help visual skills?

As you can see from the post here, vision doctor Rebecca Cox Patton is "ecstatic" about the progress of her 5-year-old patient after he did rhythmic movements for one month. Harald Blomberg, MD explained why giving children infant rhythmic movements can improve their vision: First, the innate rhythmic movements mature the brainstem. Once the brainstem is mature, it can better moderate muscle tone. Proper muscle tone is crucial to the development of the eye muscles for visual skills. Second, the rhythmic movements stimulate and mature the cerebellum. As the cerebellum matures, linking occurs from the cerebellum to the centers of the cortex that control eye movements (Blomberg, 2015).

Research shows that when an individual has an impaired ability to produce rhythm from within (often due to immaturity of the cerebellum), it is associated with dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental challenges. Other research shows that the cerebellum is critical for the ability to read (Alvarez & Fiez, 2018) and that cerebellar deficits are linked with reading challenges (Nicolson et al., 2001). Since the innate rhythmic movements help the cerebellum to mature and function better, that could explain why these movements are helpful for developing visual skills (Blomberg, 2015) and for improving reading ability (Grigg et al., 2023).

Retained primitive reflexes and visual skills

Human beings are innately wired to develop our visual systems in infancy. In fact, this visual development cannot fully happen without the action of the primitive reflexes and other neurodevelopmental movements.

There is a significant correlation between retained primitive reflexes and visual skill deficits. Visual deficits commonly connected to retained primitive reflexes are those that affect binocular vision, pursuit eye movements, depth perception, focus at near and far distances, and convergence (see references below).

Research also shows that doing movements to integrate primitive reflexes can help with visual processing skills (Domingo-Sanz, 2024; Domingo-Sanz, 2022; Wahlberg & Ireland, 2005)

"My granddaughter has loved doing the movements from the Brain and Sensory Foundations program on a daily basis with her mother. After 2 months of daily movements, my granddaughter had a reevaluation from the developmental optometrist. He was shocked at the significant progress! She is doing better than expected! It is clear that the movements from your program have helped our granddaughter and we are very grateful!"
—S.V.

Learn more about the beneficial impact of reflex integration on visual skills.

References

Alvarez, T. A., & Fiez, J. A. (2018). Current perspectives on the cerebellum and reading development. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 92, 55-66.

Andrich, P., Shihada, M., Vinci, M., Wrenhaven, S., & Goodman, G. (2018). Statistical relationships between visual skill deficits and retained primitive reflexes in children. Optometry and Visual Performance, 6(3), 106-111. (Sometimes this study is listed with Goodman as the primary author)

Blomberg, H. (2015). The rhythmic movement method: A revolutionary approach to improved health and well-being. Lulu.com.

Domingo-Sanz, V. A. (2024). Persistence of primitive reflexes associated with asymmetries in fixation and ocular motility values. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 17(2).

Domingo-Sanz, V., (2022). Inhibition of primitive reflexes and its relationship with visual projection in children and adolescents. Optometry & Visual Performance, 10(4), 183-196.

Goddard Blythe, S. (2017). Attention, balance and coordination: The ABC of learning success. John Wiley & Sons.

Gonzalez, S. R.; Ciuffreda, K.; Hernandez, L. C.; Escalante, J. B. (2008). The correlation between primitive reflexes and saccadic eye movements in 5th grade children with teacher-reported reading problems. Optometry and Vision Development, 39(3), 140-145.

Grigg, T. M., Culpan, I., & Turnbull, W. F. (2023). Primitive reflex integration and reading achievement in the classroom. Journal of Neurology and Experimental Neuroscience, 9(1), 18-26..

Ladányi, E., Persici, V., Fiveash, A., Tillmann, B., & Gordon, R. L. (2020). Is atypical rhythm a risk factor for developmental speech and language disorders? Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 11(5), e1528.

Nicolson, R. I., Fawcett, A. J., & Dean, P. (2001). Developmental dyslexia: the cerebellar deficit hypothesis. Trends in Neurosciences, 24(9), 508-511.

Wahlberg, T., & Ireland, D. (2005). Can replicating primary reflex movements improve reading ability?. Optometry & Vision Development, 36(2).