By Jan Bedell, Ph.D., Master NeuroDevelopmentalist, SPED Homeschool Partner & Board Member

 

Behavior and character are topics parents are always interested in pursuing. The privilege and responsibility we have in raising our children in the way they should go can often be a challenging and frustrating journey. It would be easier if we knew what influenced certain behaviors and how to determine if a negative interaction with a child is a heart issue or if there is something else at the root of it all. 

 

When thinking about the root cause of behavior issues, we must look at several different factors. Some might be more obscure than others. 

 

What is the root cause of challenging behavior? The source of negative behavior could be metabolic, having to do with body chemistry. It could also be the sin nature we were all born with. Or, from my perspective, it could be caused by neurodevelopmental deficits. We will look mainly at neurodevelopmental causes, but the others are well worth mentioning. 

 

  1. Metabolic Causes

Diet and nutrition can play a significant role in negative behavior. If the child reacts to food or the environment, it can cause a wide range of difficult behaviors like irritability, anger, and even aggression or destructiveness. This is beyond the child’s control and care should be taken to consider this as a cause since you cannot discipline this out of a child. One approach to this is to create a food diary each time you see negative behavior, especially if the behavior is uncharacteristic of the child in general. If you see a pattern in food consumed and negative behavior, try eliminating that food type and see if the behavior changes. 

 

  1. Neurodevelopmental Causes

Underdeveloped brain pathways can cause challenges in receiving sensory information correctly, processing information in your short-term memory, as well as storing information for good retrieval. These, like the metabolic causes, are beyond the child’s ability to control. 

Let me give you a few neurodevelopmental examples. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

  • Sensory Overload: If the child is hypersensitive to touch or sound and noises or irritating touches invade the child’s sensory system, the immediate overreaction is fight or flight because the brain is interpreting these stimuli as pain. When you are in pain, you want to get away or retaliate. The result can be negative behavior which is misunderstood by people whose sensory system gives the correct messages.  
  • Underdeveloped Central Vision: It might be considered a negative character quality not to look a person in the eyes when you talk to them. We tend to require this of our children, especially when we try to get our point across about a behavior or character issue. When the central detail vision (how you see right in the center of your vision field) is underdeveloped, the child can move his eyes toward you but soon look like he is looking over your shoulder. You have trained him to move his eyes toward you, but since he can’t really see well in the center, the eye moves so he can look with his peripheral vision. This is often interpreted as defiance or disobedience when, in fact, it is beyond the child’s control.
  • Following Directions or Staying on Task: Parents often comment that their child REFUSES to follow directions and exhibits the poor character of not staying with their work. Look no further than the inability to hold pieces of auditory information in short-term memory when you have these behavioral challenges. When children’s auditory processing is low, they literally can’t hold the pieces of the instruction together long enough to complete the request. Often, this gets them in trouble for not “obeying” or not being “diligent” when it was simply beyond their control at this point. Read more about auditory processing and attention here.  

 

  1. Sin Nature

Unlike metabolic or neurodevelopmental causes of negative behavior, the sin nature CAN be controlled by the child. The discerning eye of a caring parent can determine whether they are dealing with a metabolic, neurodevelopmental, or heart issue in a particular situation. 

 

To identify which of the three root causes of behavior or character issues you are dealing with, I suggest watching a couple of videos I recorded called Create a Positive Learning Environment Part 1 & 2 on the  Brain Coach Tips YouTube Channel. These videos will help you better understand the different possible causes of negative behavior that I discussed here and how to change this for better compliance in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Rebecka Spencer, SPED Homeschool Consulting Partner

 

A few weeks ago, I shared a story about our daughter’s experience starting school, a life-changing autism diagnosis, and our successes in addressing underlying issues through exercises like Brain Hemispheric Integration. I also mentioned the significance of something called primitive reflexes. 

 

What are Primitive Reflexes?

Primitive Reflexes are the special reflexes that develop in the brain stem before birth. This set of involuntary primitive reflexes help the baby with positioning in the womb, birthing, the first breath of life, feeding, urination, etc. Most of these reflexes go away in the first year of life as higher brain functions begin to control development. If the reflexes remain, though, they can interfere with the neurological organization of the brain and can cause learning, behavioral, social, sensory, and health problems. These remaining reflexes are unnoticed muscle movements in older children and adults that are not normally noticed if one isn’t looking. They cause ongoing issues until they are resolved through exercise. 

  

Why Are Primitive Reflexes Important?

Retained primitive reflexes have been found to cause neurological underdevelopment in some areas affecting learning, behavior, development, vision, and sensory processing. Children with autism spectrum disorder often benefit from primitive reflex integration. Research has indicated there is a relationship between the retention of infant reflexes and a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. 

 

Symptoms when Primitive Reflexes Remain: 

Because primitive reflexes start at the base of the brain. Functions that try to develop above them cannot wire properly. It can cause or contribute to: 

  • Autism 
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders 
  • Asperger’s 
  • Hemispheric Imbalance
  • Sensory Processing Disorders 
  • Hyperactivity 
  • ADHD 
  • Speech Disorders 
  • Social Disorders 
  • Asthma 
  • Dyslexia 
  • Dysgraphia 
  • Dyscalculia 
  • Immune Problems 
  • Other Health Issues 
  • Other Learning Disabilities 

 

There are many children and adults that, for one reason or another, still have one or more primitive reflexes remaining. Some causes may include a traumatic birth, lack of tummy time, too much time laying in seaters or swings, induced labor, and traumatic C-Section birth. Most of the time, there is not a known reason. 

If any of them remain past 12 months, they are called Retained Primitive Reflexes, and they are a problem. There are simple exercises that can solve each one. This process is called Integrating Primitive Reflexes. Once they are integrated through these little exercises, many learning disabilities, behaviors, sensory disorders, and health issues disappear or greatly improve. You need to check for each of them, even if your child is not displaying the usual symptoms. If one remains unnoticed, it slows improvement in cognitive function. 

While we do not fully understand autism, primitive reflexes, and the marvels of the brain and its development, the first rule of thumb with Cherish Children Ministries is to give yourself grace and do not blame yourself.

Simple assessments and exercises can be done 10 minutes per day for a few months to integrate reflexes. Then, you can stimulate the other brain functions with additional cognitive exercises and symptoms improve.

After any diagnosis, primitive reflexes are one of the first things to check. Primitive reflexes can appear with many diagnoses but are the foundation for other therapies. Other therapies or brain stimulation, such as Hemispheric Integration Therapy, work best if retained primitive reflexes are already integrated or are being exercised simultaneously. When we assessed our daughter for retained primitive reflexes and completed exercises to integrate those reflexes, she began to succeed with higher-level learning.

While we do not fully understand autism, primitive reflexes, and the marvels of the brain and its development, the first rule of thumb with Cherish Children Ministries is to give yourself grace and do not blame yourself. There is a wide range of reasons these things occur, so rest assured it is not your fault. 

Our struggling learner with autism is now finishing up her eighth-grade year, and we continue sessions together to make sure we are exercising the needed areas. She is excited about the future and wants to enter the field of education!  

 

Interested in learning more on this and other autism related research? Use  this link to receive research updates from Dr. Rebecka

 

 

 

 

 


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