Children with dyslexia often work incredibly hard. They tend to be highly intelligent, creative thinkers who find that the written word simply does not cooperate with the way their brain processes information. What is less commonly explored is whether the physical and neurological demands of reading are being made even harder by retained primitive reflexes. For a number of children, they are.
An Important Starting Point
Dyslexia is a recognised, well-researched profile of how a brain processes language. A diagnosis is not something to be fixed or overcome, and neurodevelopmental therapy will not remove it, alter it, or make it disappear. That is not what we are here to do, and it is not something we would aspire to.
Many people with dyslexia have remarkable strengths in visual thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and big-picture reasoning. The aim of working with Think Thrive is to reduce the additional neurological load that retained reflexes may be placing on a child who is already working hard, so that more of their energy can go towards their real abilities.
If your child has a dyslexia diagnosis and is receiving specialist literacy support, please continue that work. Neurodevelopmental therapy is not a replacement for specialist educational support. It addresses a different layer of the picture.
What Does Reading Actually Require of the Brain?
Reading is one of the most neurologically demanding activities we ask children to do. It requires both eyes to move smoothly and accurately across a page, both sides of the brain to communicate fluidly, the auditory system to map sounds to letters, and the body to stay organised and settled enough to sustain focus. When any of those systems are under additional strain, reading becomes harder still.
Retained primitive reflexes can affect several of these processes directly.
The Reflexes Most Commonly Connected to Reading Difficulties
- The Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR) This reflex should integrate by around six months of age. When it persists, turning the head to one side triggers involuntary changes in arm and leg tone on that side. For reading, this creates a significant problem: the smooth, coordinated left-to-right tracking of the eyes across a page becomes difficult. Letters and words may appear to move, jump, or blur. The effort involved in tracking text can be so significant that comprehension suffers even before any phonological processing begins.
- The Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR) Connected to balance, muscle tone, and spatial awareness. When retained, it can affect visual-spatial processing and the ability to orient letters and words correctly on a page, contributing to reversals and letter confusion.
- The Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) When retained, this reflex makes it physically harder to sit comfortably at a desk for sustained periods. If a child is managing their posture and body position at the same time as trying to read, the cognitive cost of reading rises significantly.
"Where retained reflexes are present alongside dyslexia, they add a physical layer to a cognitive challenge. Addressing them can reduce the effort involved without changing who the child is."
The Tomatis Connection: Listening and Phonological Awareness
Reading difficulty often has an auditory processing component. Phonological awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds within words, is foundational to decoding written language. The Tomatis Method works through the auditory system to support the brain's ability to distinguish and process sounds more precisely. For children whose reading difficulties are partly rooted in how they hear and decode language, Tomatis can be a meaningful part of their programme alongside INPP reflex work.
How Neurodevelopmental Therapy Can Help
The INPP method uses a tailored programme of gentle daily movements designed to support the integration of retained reflexes over time. As the ATNR, TLR, and other reflexes integrate, the physical demands of reading and writing tend to ease. Eye tracking becomes smoother. Sitting at a desk requires less effort. The brain has more capacity to direct towards the actual business of reading.
This is not a literacy programme. Think Thrive does not teach reading. What the work does is ease the neurological friction that may be making an already demanding task significantly harder than it needs to be.
Is This Relevant to Your Child?
If your child has a dyslexia diagnosis and you have noticed that they seem physically uncomfortable when reading, that their eyes appear to lose their place regularly, that they tire quickly when doing any close work, or that their reading difficulty seems out of proportion to their evident intelligence, it may be worth exploring whether retained reflexes are contributing. An assessment will give a clear answer, and there is no pressure to proceed further.
Rebecca holds a Licentiate of INPP (Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology) and is a Tomatis Level 2 Practitioner. She brings over 20 years of classroom experience and a personal understanding of what it means to support a neurodiverse child.