TWGPC 015: How to help students with the MORO/startle reflex?

Podcast Shorts from the Learning Disabilities Podcast Network

Hey, everybody, this is Cheri Dotterer from The Writing Glitch

I have been having such a crazy week.

I am currently sitting in my car watching it downpour and I wanted to take this time and stop driving and just talk with you for a few minutes.

We have been talking the last couple of weeks on the primitive reflexes.

I talked about the ATNR and the STNR and then I talked about the spinal galant and spinal pereze and I really wanted to stop and really talk a little bit about the and the Marea really is a startle reflex.

It's the reflex that lets babies be alert that they're moving.

It is the one that allows us to respond to sudden noises.

But it's the way that we respond when we're older that helps us break out of the marrow reflex.

So what happens in the marrow is your arms, go back, your shoulders, go back, your head goes back and you kind of back away.

And if that happens in a typical situation, more than just a kind of a, a jump where everything gets thrown back, imagine what happens with the kids, if something sudden happens to them in the classroom where they're startled and the MORO reflexes of taking over they're going to be pulling back away from the chair or the desk and, and their arms are going to go back and they're not going to be able to engage for a while in the classroom until the reflex relaxes.

So, if you've got kids that are holding their arms back for an extended amount of time and it doesn't make sense, maybe it's a startle reflex.

So what about these kids out on the playground?

If we've got a startle reflex going on, they may have a difficult time playing on the play gym because they're constantly pulling their arms back and their head back.

And so they can't coordinate their arms and they might have trouble crossing midline, they might have trouble alternating their body parts to march and things like that because the startle reflex kind of kicks in and puts them in this almost like a statue state.

And so think about the those kind of reactions with the, the kids that you see in the classroom.

If this gave you some ideas of how the moo reflex might look in the classroom, let me know, send me an email and tell me a little bit about what you're thinking as well.

Now, I have something else that I want to share with you.

I have been doing a whole bunch of interviews and that's why you didn't get a pocket cast.

Earlier this week, I have been so busy trying to get something ready for you.

How many of us have emotional kids that are, we are anticipating being difficult in the classroom.

This coming year, I am interviewing clinical psychologists, social workers, therapists, teachers, dyslexia therapists.

I'm trying to find different professionals that are out there helping kids with emotional outbursts and giving us some really good golden nuggets to help stop them in their tracks.

So if you are thinking, oh, this sounds very interesting.

I want you to go to cheridotterer.com/emotional-kids-summit/ and take a look at more information there.

Again.

That's Cheri Dotterer.com/emotional-kids-summit for now.