Prevalence of Primitive Reflexes in a Pediatric Population and It's Relationship with Directionality and Visual Spatial Skills.

Background: Primitive reflexes are unconscious reactions found in infants. The presence
of primitive reflexes past the expected time limit suggests improper cortical development. This study aims to determine the prevalence of retained primitive reflexes in children tested for visual information processing problems and their correlation to directionality difficulties and/or visual-spatial difficulties.
Methods: Exam data was retrospectively analyzed from the exam forms of patients that presented to an office that specialized in vision therapy for visual skills testing during 2011 or 2012. Data analyzed included the presence or lack of primitive reflexes, specifically the Moro Reflex, Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, Spinal Galant Reflex and Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex. In addition, exam data from the Jordan Left Right Reversals Test and the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills Visual Spatial Relationship (TVPS-VSR) subtest results was analyzed.
Results: The study demonstrated a high prevalence of positive primitive reflexes. The majority of subjects scored below normal on the Jordan Left-Right Reversals Test, but this was not exhibited on the TVPS-VSR subtest. No significant correlation was found between retained primitive reflexes and difficulty with directionality skills or with primitive reflexes and visual spatial skills.
Conclusions: The prevalence of retained primitive reflexes in this study population is high and will benefit the health care knowledge base. More research needs to be conducted on any correlation between retained primitive reflexes and directionality/visual-spatial skills and to see if primitive reflexes affect other visual skills.