Your center for brain and body health · Call (218) 999-7006

Your center for brain and body health  ·  Call (218) 999-7006

By Dr. Kolby Condos, DC, DACNB — Board-Certified Chiropractic Neurologist, North Lakes Chiropractic, Grand Rapids, MN

If your child struggles with focus, sensory meltdowns, coordination, or learning — and traditional therapies haven’t moved the needle — there’s a neurological root cause that often goes unassessed: retained primitive reflexes.

The Short Answer

Retained primitive reflexes are involuntary infant movement patterns that should turn off by 12 months of age. When they remain active, they interfere with attention, coordination, sensory processing, and learning — and are a common underlying cause of ADHD-like symptoms, sensory issues, and developmental delays. They can be identified through a neurological assessment and integrated through targeted therapy. At North Lakes Chiropractic in Grand Rapids, MN, Dr. Kolby Condos addresses retained reflexes as part of a 1–2 week neuro intensive program.

What Are Primitive Reflexes?

Primitive reflexes are automatic, involuntary movement patterns that every baby is born with. They originate in the brainstem — the most primitive part of the brain — and serve specific survival purposes during infancy: helping a baby be born, find food, breathe, and develop early motor patterns.

These reflexes are designed to be temporary. As a baby moves, plays, rolls, crawls, and explores during the first year of life, the higher centers of the brain mature. As they mature, they take over control and the primitive reflexes “integrate” — meaning they switch off and stop influencing movement and behavior.

Most primitive reflexes should be fully integrated by 12 months of age. When they’re not, they continue running in the background — driving involuntary responses that interfere with the higher-level skills the child is trying to develop.

What Does “Retained” Mean?

A retained primitive reflex is one that stayed active past the developmental window when it should have switched off. The reflex is still firing automatic responses to sensory input — but the child is now 4, 7, or 12 years old, trying to sit at a desk, read a book, or regulate emotions in a noisy environment.

Imagine trying to drive a car while someone keeps grabbing the steering wheel every few seconds. That’s what a retained reflex does to a child’s nervous system. It pulls attention, triggers movement, or creates a stress response — even when the child is trying to do something completely different.

This is why retained reflexes are often misidentified as ADHD, anxiety, dyslexia, clumsiness, or a behavior problem. The behavior is real. But the cause is neurological, not behavioral.

Signs of Retained Primitive Reflexes in Children

No single sign confirms retained reflexes — but parents often notice clusters of these issues:

If you recognize several of these in your child — especially alongside a diagnosis of ADHD, autism, sensory processing disorder, or a learning disability — retained reflexes may be a piece of the picture that hasn’t been evaluated.

The 5 Most Commonly Retained Primitive Reflexes

There are more than a dozen primitive reflexes, but these five are the most clinically significant and the ones we assess most often at North Lakes Chiropractic:

Reflex #1: Moro Reflex

Normally integrated by: 4 months

When retained, you may see:

Reflex #2: Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR)

Normally integrated by: 6 months

When retained, you may see:

Reflex #3: Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR)

Normally integrated by: 9–11 months

When retained, you may see:

Reflex #4: Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR)

Normally integrated by: 3.5 years

When retained, you may see:

Reflex #5: Spinal Galant Reflex

Normally integrated by: 9 months

When retained, you may see:

What Causes Primitive Reflexes to Be Retained?

Retained reflexes are usually the result of interrupted neurological development — something that disrupted the normal sequence of movement and experience that helps the brain mature past the brainstem stage. Common causes include:

An important note for parents: Retained reflexes are not anyone’s fault. Many of the causes listed above are entirely outside a parent’s control — and even when they’re not, no parent could be expected to know what developmental window every infant movement is supporting. What matters is recognizing the pattern now and addressing it.

Primitive Reflexes

How Retained Reflexes Connect to ADHD, Autism, and Sensory Processing

One of the most important things we’ve learned in over a decade of pediatric functional neurology is that retained reflexes underlie many of the diagnoses children receive. They don’t replace those diagnoses — but they often explain why certain symptoms exist and why other therapies haven’t fully resolved them.

Retained Reflexes and ADHD

A child with a retained Moro reflex lives in a low-grade stress response — startling easily, struggling to filter sensory input, and reacting impulsively. A retained Spinal Galant makes sitting still nearly impossible. A retained STNR makes seated focus exhausting. Together, these create exactly the symptom picture that gets labeled ADHD. Addressing the reflexes can resolve many of those symptoms without medication.

Retained Reflexes and Autism

Children on the autism spectrum often have multiple retained reflexes that amplify sensory sensitivities and make regulation harder. Integrating these reflexes doesn’t change who a child is — but it removes a layer of neurological noise that’s been making everything else harder.

Retained Reflexes and Sensory Processing Disorder

Sensory processing problems are almost always tied to retained reflexes — particularly the Moro, TLR, and Spinal Galant. When the brain can’t filter input properly because the brainstem keeps firing, every sound, texture, and movement becomes too much.

Retained Reflexes and Learning Disabilities

Reading struggles, handwriting problems, and difficulty copying from the board often trace back to a retained ATNR or STNR. The child isn’t lazy or unintelligent — their nervous system is fighting them every time they pick up a pencil or look up at the whiteboard.

How We Assess and Treat Retained Reflexes at North Lakes Chiropractic

Dr. Kolby Condos is a board-certified chiropractic neurologist (DACNB) with over a decade of clinical experience and thousands of hours of post-doctoral training in pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders. Reflex assessment is a core part of every comprehensive evaluation we do.

Step 1: Comprehensive Neurological Assessment

Before any treatment begins, Dr. Condos performs a detailed evaluation that tests each primitive reflex individually alongside vestibular function, visual processing, motor skills, and sensory integration. This identifies which specific reflexes are retained and how strongly they’re influencing your child.

Step 2: Targeted Reflex Integration in a Neuro Intensive Format

Reflex integration requires consistent, repeated input to the nervous system. This is why weekly therapy often produces slow or limited results — the spacing between sessions doesn’t give the brain enough signal to rewire.

The neuro intensive format we use at North Lakes delivers 1–2 hours of focused therapy daily for 1–2 weeks. This concentrated approach provides the repetition the nervous system needs to integrate retained reflexes — often producing changes within the first week that families notice in real-life behavior.

Step 3: Combined Therapies for Whole-System Change

Reflex integration is never done in isolation. Each session combines:

Step 4: Home Exercises and Follow-Up

At the end of the intensive program, families leave with a home exercise plan to continue supporting integration. Many families return every 3–6 months for follow-up intensives as new developmental layers come into focus.

Wondering if Retained Reflexes Are Part of Your Child’s Picture?

Schedule a comprehensive neurological assessment with Dr. Kolby Condos to find out. Call (218) 999-7006.

Frequently Asked Questions

At what age can primitive reflex integration be done?

Reflex integration can be done at any age, including in adults. Treatment is generally faster and more efficient in younger children because their nervous systems are more adaptable — but Dr. Condos has worked with teenagers and adults to successfully integrate retained reflexes.

Will my child outgrow retained reflexes on their own?

Generally, no. By the time a child is past the early developmental window, retained reflexes won’t integrate without specific input. The good news is that the right neurological exercises can integrate them at any age.

How quickly will we see results?

Families often notice changes within the first week of the intensive program — better sleep, calmer mornings, less reactivity, improved focus. Bigger functional changes (academic performance, sports coordination, social comfort) continue to develop in the weeks and months following the program as the integrated reflexes free up higher brain function.

Does my child need to be diagnosed with something to come in?

No diagnosis is required. Many parents bring their child in because something feels off — the child is bright but struggles, or hits milestones late, or melts down in ways that don’t match their age. A neurological assessment can clarify what’s happening regardless of whether a label is attached.

Is reflex integration covered by insurance?

Coverage varies. Contact our office at (218) 999-7006 to discuss insurance and payment options for the neuro intensive program.

We don’t live in Grand Rapids — is travel practical?

Yes. Families travel to us from the Twin Cities, Duluth, Rochester, and throughout Minnesota — and beyond. The 1–2 week format is specifically designed to make a single concentrated trip viable rather than requiring weekly drives.