ATNR Information

IM impacts the timing in the brain and is an essential part of mental processing, good for everyone. But I believe there are some other exercises that could compliment IM training.Retained infant reflexes impact the brains ability to process information efficiently. This is the ATNR in an infant. Your older child should not be influenced by this reflex any longer. Many children I see have this reflex active when it should not be.

I often suggest that parents look into extra brain building movement activities, be it Brain Gym, playing ball, or yoga. In my experience, these other movement training programs are not as fast as IM, but they still do positively impact the brain. Remember to have age appropriate expectations, have lots of fun, challenge the child so they can succeed atleast 80% of the time, and finally join them in the activity as a role model. Here is some information to check out about the ATNR, a frequently retained infant reflex.

What is the ATNR and how does it impact the brain?

ATNR and Vision

A motor lab, evaluating retained ATNR’s

Another way to evaluate the ATNR

Exercises to integrate the ATNR

Lizard Exercise 

Bow and Arrow

A Marching Exercise

The Robot

Eat the ball

A Metronome based exercise

More involved info about the lizard exercise The anatomy of why this works.

I do not believe there is a program that can even come close to replacing IM  but I do think there are things you can do at home that are helpful.  As in IM, repetition, repetition, repetition is a key. I will have a child move  through about 2000 repetitions of various movement tasks in one session of IM. It's going to take you 10 days to get that many rehearsals of a neuro-network in. And research shows it take about 10,000 firings of any one neuro-network to bring it up to expert level. Make it just part of your routine for a while and don't expect as quick of results as with IM. Though I’ve read a lot about retained infant reflexes, I am not an expert, nor even trained in reflex integration so please read this with that knowledge in mind.  Please let me know if you found this information helpful.