Reflex.
Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 12:32AM Okay, this might sound odd, but does anyone know of ways to improve the reflex of catching yourself with your hands rather than falling smack on your face? That's supposed to be one of those automatic reflex things, right? Let's just say that a certain middle son of ours has always had trouble with this. I can't remember a single time that he's scraped his hands from catching himself...just plenty of times falling face first into the ground...tripping and landing on his face, falling off of higher things and landing on his face, jumping and landing on his face...you get the picture. He says it doesn't occur to him to try to catch himself. Could he really be "missing" this reflex? Is there anything we can do to encourage the catching yourself thing?
Reader Comments (2)
sounds like he has dyspraxia... does he have any signs of dyslexia as well - they normally run together - I have both and don't have this reflex either. .
Amanda, our middle son Isaiah has sensory processing disorder, and this 'reflex' is/was a big challenge for him. One of the things the therapists have done to "teach" him is to put him on a therapy or exercise ball (the big, big balls- some people use them for core work outs) on his tummy. They roll him forward over and over again, and tell him to 'push up' on the floor. You or I would naturally reach out our arms as soon as the ball rolled forward to steady ourselves- your son may not. But you can tell him or actually 'help' him put his arms forward and just play with him like that. It will help him to both train the muscles needed AND train the propreoception he needs to realize he's falling. Is he having difficulty with other gross motor skills? (Clumsy, walking into objects as if he does not see them, difficulty jumping up and down in the same place without falling, running without tripping?) If so, you may want to talk to your pediatrician about a referral to an occupational therapist and a physical therapist for evaluation. Isaiah's whole gross and fine motor skill set has improved an amazing amount in six months of therapy!