The Retained Primitive Reflexes Disrupting Reading Development

This article provides helpful information about how retained Primitive Reflexes can impact a child’s reading development. 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.

Reading is more than recognizing words on a page—it relies on precise, coordinated eye movements and a well-developed sensory-motor foundation.

When primitive reflexes remain unintegrated, they can disrupt foundation skills needed for reading, making it harder for children to do the following:

• Track text
• Shift their focus from near-to-far
• Maintain stable posture
• Establish visual control

Because primitive reflexes influence muscle tone, head position, and eye movement coordination, their persistence can lead to challenges. Some of these challenges may include the following:

• Visual-perception issues
• Slowed processing
• Poor handwriting
• Higher rates of dyslexia

Strong reading skills depend on integrated reflexes and stable postural control—key pieces that support smooth, efficient eye tracking and confident learning.

Foundational Elements Needed for Reading Development

There are a number of foundational elements that must be developed prior to the child building the necessary skills for reading. Believe it or not, strong motor development and core strength support a child’s reading progress as they learn in school. But there are so many other areas that contribute to helping a child become a strong reader (even without a retained Primitive Reflex).

However, when reflexes are retained, you may find delays in motor skills that can directly impact higher areas of learning.

A few of these areas, both foundational and direct application, are as follows:

Gross Motor and Core Strength

While gross motor skills and core strength don’t directly teach a child how to read, they are important foundational elements to support reading skills. It’s important to remember building motor skills equals postural control and improves concentration to aid the child as they read.

Core strength and motor development support the following when a child begins learning to read:

• Sitting upright at the table or desk
• Posture without tiring or laying on the desk
• Controlled eye movements when tracking words across the page
• Eye-hand coordination for reading the chalkboard and following what’s on the page

Body and Spatial Awareness

Body and spatial awareness help children feel grounded and comfortable with their environment. As the child becomes more aware of where their body is in space, they can move in different directions seamlessly without crashing or bumping into objects or people.

Body and spatial awareness development support a child’s reading in the following ways:

• Understanding text directionality
• Letter orientation and directionality
• Spacing letters, words and sentences on the page

Visual Motor

Visual motor skills allow the child to coordinate what they eyes see along with hand movements. It also supports the child’s ability to process what they see on the page and commit it to memory.

Retained primitive reflexes can often delay a child’s visual motor skills and visual motor milestones, which prevent them from developing their reading skills.

Some of the following ways visual motor skills help children read are as follows:

• Forming letters and numbers correctly
• Identifying letters (b/d, p/q)
• Reading from left to right (crossing the midline)
• Tracking text without losing their place
• Recognizing and retaining letters and words
• Knowing where words and sentence begin and end

These areas provide a breakdown of a few of the foundational elements needed for reading. Some of the areas that apply directly to a child’s reading development are as follows:

• Oral language skills (expressing what they read)
• Phonological Awareness (processing and manipulating the fundamentals of sounds and syllables)
• Phonics (understanding the relationship between letters and sounds)
• Fluency (reading smoothly across the page, using inflection and expression)
• Vocabulary (knowing the meaning of words and how they are used in a sentence)
• Reading Comprehension (remembering what was read, making predictions, asking questions)

Retained Primitive Reflexes and Reading Development

If primitive reflexes do not develop fully, full functioning of the brain will be affected. When children struggle with reading development, it could be related to one or more retained Primitive Reflexes.

Some of the reflexes may delay motor skills, while others may directly impact the fundamentals of reading skills. Parts of the body involved in control of eye movements depend upon developed primitive reflexes.

The following retained Primitive Reflexes could impact a child’s reading fluency, accuracy and overall development:

Moro Reflex

When a child has a retained Moro reflex, it not only impacts their visual motor skills, but also their ability to process sensory information within their environment. A retained Moro reflex can cause the child to be consistently distracted by sensory information around them. That could mean a child tapping their pencil in the back of the room or the bright lights in the classroom.

In addition, an unintegrated Moro reflex may cause immature eye movements and visual problems that impact the child’s ability to ignore irrelevant visual input. Kids with this issue may do the following:

• Ignore important information and become hyper focused on visual stimuli that’s unrelated
• Has trouble with sustaining visual attention when reading
• Can’t read or copy what’s on the chalkboard to their page

Kids with a retained Moro reflex also tend to avoid vestibular activities because they cause dizziness and motion sickness. This can contribute to words jumping, bouncing and blurring on the page while they read.

STNR Reflex

Retained Primitive Reflexes such as the Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) may hinder reading ability.

The STNR aids visual development from near-to-far. Stable visual perception and control of muscle tone without interference of head position is key in allowing a child to properly develop control while reading.

When the STNR reflex is retained, you may see the following signs:

• Timing of messages from the visual system to the brain is mismatched or slowed
• Frequent motion sickness, vertigo, and visual-perception disturbances
• Inability of the brain to interpret information correctly

The child will also struggle with reading comprehension because a retained STNR reflex makes it difficult for the child to remember details and retain information they read on the page.

A retained STNR reflex also contributes to the development of impulse control. If the child has underdeveloped impulse control, the child will struggle with sustained attention in the classroom needed for reading.

ATNR Reflex

Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR) when not integrated can also cause similar problems with reading as the STNR. Reading and handwriting are both obstacles that are difficult to overcome when the ATNR is retained. More than 50% of children with a retained ATNR are reported to have dyslexia.

Many times, kids have trouble when a retained ATNR reflex also creates problems with Dyslexia:

• Blurred vision and sees double images
• Rubs their eyes and becomes tired easily when reading
• Erratic eye movements that make print appear to jump or jiggle
• Omits letters, words or whole lines when reading

When children have a retained ATNR reflex, reading may become difficult when they experience the following:

• Difficulties with movement and coordination
• Poor visual motor skills (inability to process letters, numbers, words on the page)
• Delayed balance (letters and words will appeared blurred or jump)
• Immature eye-hand coordination for using hands and eyes at the same time while reading (turning the page without losing their place)
• Inability to cross the midline when the child reads from left to right

Additionally, a retained ATNR reflex may impact the child’s connection with eye movements. The child may not be able to make rapid eye movements that are necessary for reading. This often leads to spelling and grammar issues.

Children with a retained ATNR tend to be unable to read small print on the page. These kids will also regularly reverse letters and numbers while pronouncing sounds and words as they read.

Reading comprehension is also affected when the ATNR reflex is retained. Children must put all their mental energy into focusing on the words on the page rather than the details they are reading. This translates into the child becoming a slower reader and them forgetting what they just read.

Spinal Galant Reflex

While a retained Spinal Galant reflex doesn’t directly impact a child’s reading ability, it does affect the child’s ability to attend and focus. Children with a retained Spinal Galant reflex often display behaviors of fidgeting and squirming, which prevents them from focusing on their reading and comprehension.

Any type of unwanted stimuli that activates the Spinal Galant reflex can cause the child to become distracted or disrupted. Some of the following may trigger the reflex and instigate the child to lose focus:

• Tight clothing
• Waist bands, belts, seams in clothes
• Placing back up against the chair while at their desk

If the child cannot maintain attention and focus due to a retained Spinal Galant reflex, the child will find it very difficult to progress in their reading development.

Head-Righting Reflex

With an underdeveloped Head-Righting reflex, children frequently experience trouble with their vestibular system. When the vestibular system is delayed, it can contribute to immature eye movements. The child’s eye movements may respond at an incorrect angle, creating perceptual problems and the inability to filter out information on the page that is irrelevant.

Kids with a retained Head-Righting reflex face challenges with shifting their gaze or eye movements without moving the entire head. As a result, reading becomes challenging as the child cannot see the words clearly, or the words seem unstable on the page.

In addition, a retained Head-Righting reflex can impact the child’s ability to process information through their visual and auditory systems. These kids will read words with their eyes, but don’t process or retain what they saw through their visual system. Test-taking is often difficult for kids with a retained Head-Righting reflex because they don’t process information they read through their visual system.

When it comes to following tasks and listening to instructions given by the teacher, these kids will have trouble processing information they hear through their auditory system.

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

McPhillips, M., & Jordan-Black, J. A. (2007). Primary reflex persistence in children with reading difficulties (dyslexia): A cross-sectional study. Neuropsychologia, 45(4), 748–754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.08.005

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. Faculty Works Occupational Therapy, Paper 10. Des Moines University. https://digitalcommons.dmu.edu/fac_ot/10/

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

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