Retained Reflexes Delaying Sequencing and Math Skills

This article contains information on how retained reflexes impact sequencing and math skills. Affiliate links are included for your convenience. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

Many children who struggle with math skills may try to mask or hide math challenges by saying, “math is not my thing.” Other kids who have trouble with math can be labeled as inattentive, forgetful, or disorganized because they have difficulty following multi-step directions or remembering the order of tasks. While there are many reasons a child may experience these challenges, one often-overlooked contributor is the presence of retained primitive reflexes.

Primitive reflexes are automatic movement patterns that develop before birth and during infancy. They serve an essential purpose in early survival and neurological development, but as the brain matures, these reflexes should naturally integrate during the first year of life. When primitive reflexes remain active beyond infancy, they can interfere with the development of higher-level motor, cognitive, and academic skills.

With math skills and equations, primitive reflexes that are retained can impact the following areas:

• Sequencing
• Working memory
• Mathematical reasoning

For therapists, recognizing the relationship between retained reflexes and learning can provide valuable insight into why a child continues to struggle despite receiving traditional academic support. For parents, understanding these connections can help explain why a bright child may still find math and organization frustrating.

Sequencing Skills Support Learning

Sequencing is the ability to understand, organize, and recall information in the correct order. It is one of the brain’s foundational executive functioning skills and is essential for nearly every academic task.

Children rely on sequencing to help them with the following skills:

• Following multi-step directions
• Remembering routines
• Completing tasks in order
• Retelling stories
• Spelling words correctly
• Reading fluently
• Solving multi-step math problems
• Understanding patterns and number relationships
• Learning mathematical procedures such as long division or carrying numbers

Strong sequencing depends on efficient communication between multiple areas of the brain. It requires the following to effectively build a strong foundation for learning:

• Stable posture
• Coordinated eye movements
• Bilateral integration
• Working memory
• Motor planning

When primitive reflexes remain active, they continually compete with these higher-level brain processes, making sequencing much more difficult instead of it coming naturally or automatically.

How Sequencing Skills Affect Math

Math is one of the most sequential academic subjects. Every calculation depends on completing steps in the correct order while holding information in working memory.

Children with sequencing challenges often have difficulty with the following:

• Counting accurately
• Recognizing numerical patterns
• Learning math facts
• Understanding place value
• Completing multi-step calculations
• Keeping numbers aligned on paper
• Remembering the sequence of operations
• Solving word problems
• Learning multiplication and division algorithms
• Understanding fractions and decimals

Instead of math becoming automatic, every problem requires significant mental effort, leading to frustration, fatigue, and decreased confidence.

Retained Reflexes Affecting Sequencing

Children with retained primitive reflexes may demonstrate signs and symptoms of trouble with math skills and sequencing. If a child has one or more retained primitive reflexes impacting a child’s sequencing ability, you may find the following:

• Difficulty following two-step or three-step directions
• Frequently skips steps during tasks
• Has trouble remembering routines
• Loses their place while reading
• Difficulty copying from the board
• Reverses numbers or letters
• Inconsistent academic performance
• Poor organization
• Trouble completing assignments independently
• Has slow processing speed
• Struggles with weak working memory
• Difficulty with left and right discrimination
• Has challenges learning math procedures
• Frequently makes careless mistakes despite understanding concepts

These children often understand individual pieces of information, but struggles to organize them into a logical sequence.

Retained Reflexes Most Commonly Associated with Sequencing and Math Delays

Many times, when reflexes are retained, it’s not just one that is causing all the problems, especially when it comes to math and sequencing delays. Typically, we find multiple retained reflexes causing trouble with kids in several academic areas. Some of the reflexes most commonly retained when it comes to sequencing and math challenges are as follows:

Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR)

The ATNR is active during infancy and assists with early movement development. When the head turns to one side, the arm and leg on that side naturally extend while the opposite side bends.

If this reflex remains active, crossing the body’s midline becomes difficult. In addition, a retained ATNR reflex may create problems for children as they develop the following skills:

• Reading from left to right (left-right confusion)
• Bilateral coordination
• Tracking words across a page
• Organizing written work
• Remembering sequential information

Math requires consistent left-to-right visual scanning and organized spatial processing. If the ATNR reflex becomes retained, it may contribute to the following setbacks with math skills:

• Misaligned numbers
• Difficulty understanding place value
• Skipping numbers while counting
• Difficulty copying equations
• Problems with carrying and borrowing
• Difficulty following multiple calculation steps

Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR)

The STNR helps infants transition into crawling. As children mature, this reflex should integrate so that the upper and lower body can work independently.

If the STNR reflex is retained, posture and visual attention are frequently affected, which are two key elements for sequencing. When the STNR reflex is retained, you may find the following with kids in the classroom:

• Loses their place during tasks
• Frequently shifts positions
• Has difficulty copying information
• Becomes mentally fatigued during seatwork
• Struggles to complete tasks in order

Because the STNR reflex affects a child’s posture and stability, the child’s mental energy may be focused more on attending rather than problem-solving skills.

In these cases, kids with a retained STNR may struggle with the following:

• Maintaining attention during math
• Can’t Comple long calculations
• Trouble organizing work on paper
• Setbacks with tracking columns of numbers
• Can’t remain seated during instruction

Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR)

The TLR influences balance, posture, and spatial awareness. When the TLR reflex is retained, children often struggle with body awareness and understanding spatial relationships.

Sequencing depends on the brain’s ability to organize movement and information. If retained the TLR reflex may contribute to the following:

• Poor motor planning
• Difficulty learning routines
• Slow processing
• Weak body awareness
• Difficulty organizing complex tasks

A retained TLR reflex can also impact a child’s math skills. Children with a retained TLR reflex often struggle with the following:

• Understanding quantity
• Spatial organization of numbers
• Number lines
• Geometry concepts
• Visualizing mathematical relationships
• Estimating distances and measurements

Spinal Galant Reflex

The Spinal Galant Reflex responds to stimulation along the sides of the lower back and supports movement during birth. If retained, children often demonstrate excessive movement and poor sustained attention.

Because the child is constantly distracted by movement or discomfort, sequencing becomes inconsistent and can create the following problems:

• Forgetting steps
• Frequently changing activities
• Difficulty completing routines
• Reduced working memory

Math requires sustained focus and attention, especially in the classroom. Math skills can be delayed when the Spinal Galant is retained because it can cause the child to do the following:

• Rush through problems
• Skip steps
• Make careless errors
• Lose track of calculations
• Avoid lengthy assignments

Moro Reflex

The Moro Reflex is the infant’s startle response. When the Moro reflex is retained, the nervous system remains in a heightened state of alertness.

Children often struggle because their brains prioritize survival over learning.

The Moro reflex often creates the child to be in constant survival mode, which doesn’t free their mind or their brain for learning. Some of the signs of a retained Moro reflex include the following:

• Poor concentration
• Easily overwhelmed
• Difficulty processing multiple directions
• Emotional reactions to mistakes
• Reduced working memory

Since math often requires sustained mental effort, many children may struggle with math skills when the Moro reflex is retained because they may do the following:

• Freeze during tests
• Forget previously learned concepts
• Panic with multi-step problems
• Become frustrated quickly
• Avoid challenging work

Palmar Reflex

The Palmar Reflex connects hand movements with oral and neurological development. When the Palmar reflex is retained, fine motor control and handwriting may remain immature.

Children may struggle to record information efficiently because writing itself requires excessive effort and can impact the following:

• Written sequencing
• Copying notes
• Recording math steps
• Organizing work

Additional difficulties with the Palmar reflex when it comes to math skills and writing, may include the following:

• Slow written calculations
• Inconsistent number formation
• Difficulty aligning numbers
• Increased mental effort for written work

Retained Primitive Reflexes and Sequencing Connections

Retained primitive reflexes create instability within the nervous system. Instead of allowing the brain to devote resources to higher-order thinking, portions of the nervous system remain occupied with maintaining posture, balance, eye movements, and automatic motor responses.

As a result, skills such as sequencing, working memory, attention, planning, and mathematical reasoning may develop more slowly.

This does not mean a child lacks intelligence. In fact, many children with retained reflexes are highly capable thinkers who simply expend far more effort on tasks that appear automatic for their peers.

Supporting Children with Retained Reflexes

Intervention should address the child’s neurological foundation alongside academic instruction. While explicit teaching remains essential, children often make greater progress when therapy also supports postural control, bilateral coordination, reflex integration, visual-motor skills, and sensory processing.

Movement-based interventions, integrated with occupational therapy, physical therapy, developmental interventions, or other evidence-informed approaches within a therapist’s scope of practice, may help improve the foundational skills that support sequencing and mathematical learning. Academic gains are often greatest when neurological readiness and classroom instruction work together.

If your child or students could benefit from exercises to integrate retained Primitive Reflexes, check out our Integrate with Success program here.

Retained Primitive Reflexes Roadmap

For more information on the signs and symptoms of six retained Primitive reflexes, complete the form below to download a free copy of our Retained Primitive Reflexes Roadmap. When you’ve completed the form, check your email inbox for the download link, including your junk and spam folder. If you do not see the download link come to your email inbox, please email us at info@ilslearning.com.

Reference Materials

Feldhacker, D. R., Cosgrove, R., Feiten, B., Schmidt, K., & Stewart, M. (2022). The correlation between retained primitive reflexes and scholastic performance among early elementary students. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 15(3), 288–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2021.1959482

Gieysztor, E. Z., Choińska, A. M., & Paprocka-Borowicz, M. (2018). Persistence of primitive reflexes and associated motor problems in healthy preschool children. Archives of Medical Science, 14(1), 167–173. https://doi.org/10.5114/aoms.2016.60503

Hickey, J., & Feldhacker, D. R. (2022). Primitive reflex retention and attention among preschool children. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 15(1), 1–13. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1345130

Provazník, A., Musálek, M., Bob, P., Větrovský, T., Malambo, C., Silva, A. F., & Anderson, D. (2026). Persisting primitive reflexes and motor and cognitive development in children: A systematic review. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106915

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