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Hey, hello, everyone is Dr. Buerger here with my pal Elizabeth. Then we wanna wish you all in happy St. Patty’s day. And Elizabeth has for a little. This supposed to be a Shamrock tattoo here, but mom didn’t do such a great job, but anyway, hopefully you guys are having an amazing March 17th and are ready for some green eggs and a ham or beer or whatever it is for you.
So I am your house today. We are going to rock and roll and hammer out our part two, our six-ish part series. On primitive reflexes. One of the reasons I wanna do this series is because we know that post pandemic development is gonna take a hit. And we covered that a couple episodes ago. So you can go on either the Intersect for life Facebook page or ChiroSecure’s..
Listen to that. But this is one of the things we’re gonna need to be savvy on with regard to what’s coming down the road. What train wreck, because we are already seeing the research coming out about neurodevelopmental delays as a result of the stress during the pandemic. So make sure or that to go back and.
Keep up on that. I’m gonna head on over to my slides as we now share some cool information. So part two, we’re gonna go over Palmer and rooting. So Elizabeth, why don’t you go take a nap while mom finishes up and she’ll be back. Okay. Here we everybody. And then once I wanna thank I. To a little lucky Shamrock up there.
I am so lucky to and the chiropractic profession is so lucky to have you in our corner and always being there for us and paving the way for chiropractors in the field. So thank you so much, ChiroSecure for giving us this platform and everything you do for us. All right. So I just wanna bring you back to last month, our first just a little synopsis there.
Remember primitive reflexes are brain stem mediated. They are reflex, baby reflex. Okay. Sorry. I already just do that when it gets in my brain, I have to get it out so I can move on. So they are reflexes. They don’t have cortical involvement, right? They’re the roots of the nervous system.
That’s what I refer to the roots of the nervous system after the age maximum. Of 12 months, they should be low. They should not be active. They’re the low grass line, we don’t see them where they’re not active anymore. We need to now go in a neurodevelopmental trajectory to hire more sophisticated neurological centers.
So go back to the last episode and I went Oliver, that whole thing. Again, they integrate in a hierarchal level. And I’m gonna start with Palmer and rooting because they’re a couple of the first to integrate. So that’s what we’re gonna hang out and go over today. So Palmer and the reason I put Palmer and rooting together are for a couple reasons, a they both represent the tactile and propri SEP sensory systems.
So all reflexes. Require specific environmental experiences, movements, motor patterns to happen, motor milestones to happen in order for them to integrate lack of movement patterns, or movement experiences. We’ll foster those to be continue to be active. And then all reflexes represents maturation of the next hierarchical level of neurodevelopment.
And that is our sensory motor systems. So Palmer and rooting will help tactile propioceptive information or systems to integrate to mature. And we also know I know a lot of you think I might be from in New York or something. I just recently somebody asked, I did an interview. And somebody says you must be from New York.
And I’m like, why? Cause I talk with my hands and they’re like, no, just the way you talk and the excitement. So anyway, Palmer and rooting mouth and hand expressions are intertwined. And so these two refluxes are intertwined. All right. Palmers should integrate about two to three months, provided the little fiddle part has a right sensory environment experience.
Okay. So let’s just look over how we over. Okay. In the little fiddle fart, we are gonna take the little fiddle fart. Okay. In the early months. And we look at their hand and we basically place our finger or object in their hand and they grasp it. Bites, Palmer grasp. Okay. So that’s what we’re looking at.
Now in the older child, what you wanna remember. The things we’re gonna develop today are good for ages four, four, and a half. And up that older child and the adult remember reflexes will reemerge. So reactivate during times of stress that’s in the last two years of so many lives. So the more in the older child adult, the more a reflex mimics.
Looks like the reaction and infant would have, the more it’s akin to that is the more active it is. The more it’s hanging out, causing more neurological disturbance. So in the older little fart or the adult we use you can use a QIP. A a little paint brush in this picture. It’s it shows me using the sensory brush on the bottom of my reflux hammer.
Okay. And you can simply use your hand and you’re stroking the Palm of the hand. Okay. Life is shown right here. You’re stroking it. And across the Palm, this one’s across the Palm right here. Okay. And you’re seeing what the reaction is now. Certainly if they have especially if they have a lesion in the prefrontal cortex, it’s gonna be a very active, you’re gonna see them grasp.
Okay. If you see full or near full grasp, you’re thinking you’re gonna compare that with other, the neurological signs and symptoms. But if. If you don’t see very apparent other concerning neurological signs and symptoms you think, and that, that reflex is still very optic, but you also look for more subtle signs.
Do you just have subtle twitching of the fingers? Not a full grasp, lots of times. It’s the last two fingers and they just suddenly Twitch, or come in, you look for, do they respond like this or like this? Okay. It’s itchy. Okay. Those are more subtle signs, but those are also signs that this reflex is active.
And in times of stress, trauma, toxin, thoughts, technology use tethered, oral restrictions or tethered restrictions throughout the body, including subluxations. Those reflexes can activate even more. Okay, so I like to do this and I’m gonna show you a video at the end where you’re gonna see a little fiddle fart that certainly has some compromise.
I like to do this with the individual standing upright against gravity. Good posture, not slouch, good posture feet together. And then reason why is I wanna put the maximum sensory load possible all in that individual. To see if they can handle that load. So since this reflex represents tactile proprioception, I like them upright.
Good posture increase that proprioceptive net vestibular load. Okay. And what is their reaction? All right, so we stroke two to three times make sure. Or when you do this is if they’re fisted, don’t take your hand and try to straighten that Palm. Because you’re going to desensitize them. So if they’re have, if they’re fisted and you say, and you take your other hand, your hands and try to, you’re gonna desensitize them.
So ask them, can you put your hands out like this? Okay. Can you put your hands flat? And then you do the stroking this way. And this way, and you look for any reactions. Okay. And you can grade them. All right. Is it very mild? Is it moderate? Is it severe? And then you just know how active that reflexes.
All right. So that is the Palmer. So what’s the do Palmer in your little fiddle parts again, two to three months, right? You want this grading provided they have a good environment you wanna look for. Are they bringing hands to midline? Are they up? And are they putting pressure on their hands? Do, there is one hand subtly cut like this.
Okay. These are signs that you might have a super sensitive, super active Palmer reflex. This is gonna be associated with fine motor control. Palmer can affect handwriting, obviously, cuz a fine motor control of a hand, but also speech because it is intertwined with the rooting, which we’ll get to.
So these are things that look like, look for with their little fiddle parts that maybe this already of this age is hanging out and what can I do to help? And we’ll talk about that in a minute. Okay. Things you might see in the older individual. Poor trouble with activities of daily living, zippering things up buttoning buttons manual Dex, dexterity, handwriting, pencil grip, all those things with fine motor control of the hands.
Okay. So those are things that can hang out and be troublesome kiddos that are getting pulled out for handwriting. Look at this. Okay. Look at if this reflexes just too active. And look at them together, never seeing a lot, one reflex look at all of them together. Okay. So one of the things you can do, I call it the thumb wrench that you can do with any, and you can have parents do this too, and we’re gonna show some more things at the end with the video, but specifically for Palmer, what you can do, you a thumb wrench where you’re taking, this is my bad risk that I just broke.
So let’s see how this is gonna work. So in other words, I would take Elizabeth extra shot on the camera. Now she is a little one. Okay. So depending on the size of the hand of the person you’re working with, you use your pinky or your thumb, whatever. With Elizabeth, I would use my pinky cuz it’s small.
Okay. And put it in her inner Palm and makes sure she puts a fist around it with the older child. I take my thumb. Make sure they put a fist around my thumb and keep that closed and you just take it and you’re wrenching it inwards. So you, my hand is rested behind the Palm. My thumb is in their Palm and I’m bringing this around.
I’m making them clench my thumb as I doing it. And we do that. About five times. Okay. If they can’t keep their Palm closed, what I will do is start them out with, I will use my fingers to keep that Palm closed of theirs. And you can just do the sum rich. Okay. And it’s good to do different thumb.
Positions. I do thumb pointed out hitchhiker thumb. So this way, thumb pointed up this way and thumb tucked in. Okay. So that’s my three positions for my thumb wrench, hitchhiker up and thumb in. Okay. So there we go. On the thumb wrench. I do. If the, if the right hand is active, where you’re seeing that active Palmer, I’ll do the right hand and maybe do a couple times on the left hand just to keep it in check as well.
All right. So rooting in the infant is basically, you stroke their cheek. I and baby turns opens him out and turns towards you. Ready to suck. Ready for food. Okay. So this reflex hangs out to about three to four months of age. Again, it’s gonna be associated with tactile proprioception.
This is a very bonding reflex, especially with mom because of the nature of the breastfeeding that with this reflex. So it is a very bonding Exploration of that infant. So in the older fiddle part, what you will do, older child older adult, you’re gonna start at the top of the nasal bridge.
Don’t go too far up into the near the eye, cuz you’re gonna get that blink reflex going. So just start at the top of the nasal bridge and stroke down, just stroke down the side and then stroke down this other side. You’ll do that two to three times. And what you’re gonna look for is you’re gonna look for on the side.
You’re stroking. Do you just see a little Twitch maybe of that side of the mouth? Do you see a full opening? Do you just see a smile again, full opening? It’s gonna mean that individuals got a very active. Rooting reflex, cuz it’s mimicking the infantile response. If you just see a little quiver on the same type stroke, that’s more of a mild response.
But again, then you look at these and think, okay, even if it’s a mild response, when that child is under a stress or how higher stress load does that become more active? Okay. So rooting is very easy. so things, if this is hang out, things that you might see, okay. Social and learning problems, any reflex, any primitive reflex that’s active is telling you that higher cortical, more sophisticated centers of the brain are subpar.
So we will tend to have learning behavior, social challenges, poor articulation. So those. Kinda take a survey in your practice, those little fiddle farts in the primary grades that are getting pulled out for handwriting, are they also getting pulled out for speech? Cause very likely they are. Are they, do they have a lot of sensitivity around the face?
Are they pick the eaters or messy eaters? They Droo a lot. They may have poor manual dexterity again because it’s so much tied with the okay. And again, hand and Mouth movements are intertwined. So what does this look like in the classroom? This looks like the little part that’s supposed to be practicing their spelling words or writing a story or what have you.
And they can’t be quiet. And so they get in trouble at time for talking. when they’re supposed to be quietly reading or writing, excuse me. They’re supposed to be doing something with their hand and they cannot do that unless they’re talking. Because of these hand mouth movements and they’re trying, so they get in trouble all the time.
So that’s an active rooting. I have a great continuing ed class, all on reflexes on our intersect for life website. So we go more into depth with this, but I want you to get, look at the overall picture. Especially if in your history intake you’re seeing that little fiddle part is being pulled out for special needs classes for handwriting, speech, whatever, take a look, are these reflexes there and are they too active?
So I wanna show a video. This little fiddle fart is you’re gonna see that she definitely has. Developmental challenges, a lot of poor posture control, which is gonna be propioception and your vestibular control. But we’re also gonna show a couple things that we can do to work.
If these two refluxes are active, so let’s have some fun. Let’s give a go.
It’ll take a minute to roll.
Okay, ready? Okay. We’re gonna use my secret brush right here. Can you stand and put your hands out here? This is the Palmer reflex. Okay. So the Palmer, breast and infant, when you stroke their Palm, the grass. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take my little secret brush right here. Can you put your feet together again and hug your feet?
Okay. And put your hands out like this. Okay. I’m gonna take my secret brush. I’m just gonna brush your hands right here. I never done before. Can we do, can you close your eyes and let me do it again?
Tickle. So the Palmer it tickles, the Palmer is going, represent the tactile and propioceptive sensory systems. So oftentimes you’ll see doctor this afterward. You saw her hands come in a little bit. Carly, your, can we do that later on? Did my secret brush make your hands tickle? Yeah, a little tickle, a medium tickle or a lot of tickle a lot.
Huh? Okay. And she had a moderate to marked positive, active. Palmer reflex. I’m gonna go straight into the rooting reflex now. So I’m gonna take my, can I take my secret question and I go, I’m gonna do this. So that’s a rooting reflex. We go from the nasal bread. You wanna open your eyes for a minute?
Okay. Can you step off the board? Okay. Ready? I.
Okay, open your eyes. Great job. Is that a little tickling, medium tickly, a lot of tickly, a lot of tickly. So her Palmer and rooting are still very active. Again, it’s gonna represent tactile APPO septic sensory systems. So they might be a little bit tactile, appropriate subject defensive a couple things we can do to help that.
Can we do a little game now? Can we do a little exercise? Okay. So one exercise we can do to integrate both the Palmer and the rooting Palmer and rooting are very closely interrelated. They’re both going to if retained have problems with moving the mouth in the hands at the same time. So a lot of these kiddos get in trouble for trying.
They’re supposed to be quiet and writing. They need to talk at the same time. Because that again, that hand and the mouth won move at the same time, I’m letting her stay on this wobble board cuz she likes it and it’s calming for her. So Hey, whatever way we can get. All right. What I’m gonna do, we’re gonna play little game.
Okay. And what I’m gonna have you try. Do you wanna try? Why don’t we try off the wobble board right now? Can you sit down for a minute off the, yeah, I’m gonna have you step off of there cause I’m gonna have you drink some water at the same time. You up some of my fancy paper up there. So what I want you to do is I’m gonna give you some of these and I want you to, into.
Hang on like this. Wow. You drink some water. Wow. Wow. Can you try it? I okay. So I’ll put the water in for straw and we’ll get some pig sheets. Okay. And you can make some snowballs. You can make some snowballs with paper and I ready.
There we go. That heart being that hard on you. Are you drinking some water? Okay. We do another one. I did it. We doing more here, right? Okay. And the smallest, the straw, the more they have. Oh, good job. Can you.
The other thing you can do is have them blow bubbles. We can get some, but sets of bubbles and have them blowing bubbles while they’re clean paper. So that way we get Palmer reading both at the same time
job. Okay. So another thing you can do, the Palmer reflex is going to break. I have Palmer re reflect. Yeah, you do have a Palmer reflex and we’re gonna help it feel better. A lot of tactile input in the first couple months of life, when they’re about three months old or so 4, 3, 4 months on their they’re pushing up.
We wanna make sure you get a lot of tactile stimulation on the palms, their hands. So another way we can help that Palmer reflex, if it’s active is we can make some lizards ready? Okay. We’re gonna put your head this way, just like that. And we’re gonna put your arms like this, and we’re gonna pretend like we’re a lizard that we’re moving through the mud.
I can you look right here at this, these fingers and we’re gonna pull down. And we try to get them for some handwriting coordination too. We try to get them to watch their hand, track it with their eyes. Now it’s gonna come back up here. Damn. And can you turn your head to the side? Okay. And watch these fingers right here.
And can you pull it down now if I have a kiddo that doesn’t wanna keep your hands flat, I will put my hand top of their. Can you do the side? Can you turn? Okay. You do it yourself. It down. And bam. Ready.
Really hard. We keep it really flat and we go all the way down and I like to do it. If we get different surface textures from the leather to the cloth, that way we get different textures on the palms. Okay. So that gives you couple things to think about. You can also use the Liz for at and R.
Oftentimes they use that for at and R as well. Remember give your little fiddle parts, a lot of stimulation, a lot of environmental experiences in order to not to try to mitigate those reflexes from staying active cotton balls, feather corduroy felt around the mouth on the hands. Give them these different experiences exposures in the early months of life to help them integrate.
So those are some things to to be proactive and preventative in nature, as well as to help mitigate a or integrate a active reflex if it’s hanging out. So hopefully enjoyed those tips and tidbits on the On the Palmer and rooting and again, ChiroSecure. You’re amazing. Thank you so much for all you do for our profession.
And I look forward to seeing you next month, April already. The third Thursday of April and the first Thursday of April will be the amazing Erik Kowalke to give you more drop, dead, amazing information until then you guys keep amazing and keep turning the tide and changing lives.
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