The earliest patterns of motor behavior appear to be genetically coded in a species; that is humans have some initial organization or template that guides the pattern of new formations. At birth babies have no voluntary control over movement. The baby responds to sensation through the primitive reflexes. There are automatic stereotyped movements meditated by the most primitive part of the brain, the brain stem. Their job is to control basic survival functions necessary for the first few months of life. As the infant grows, so does the central nervous system. Higher more sophisticated regions of the brain begin to supersede primitive reflexes. As this occurs early survival patterns are inhibited or controlled to allow more mature patterns of response or postural reflexes to develop in their place.

When postural reflexes replace primitive reflexes the infant begins to gain control of it’s body and body movements. Later on, movement patterns are played back and adjusted to meet the demands of the task being performed. Some children fail to gain this control fully in the first six months of life, and continue to grow up in a reflexive mode, where some of the primitive reflexes remain present and the postural reflexes do not develop fully. These children have enormous difficulty with voluntary movement patterns as the body remains under the influence of involuntary response. Retained primitive reflexes will also affect a child’s sensory perceptions, causing him or her to be hypersensitive in some areas and hypo-sensitive in others. If both sensory input and motor response are impaired, conceptualization of certain movements becomes impossible! This can affect not just arms and legs, but eye functioning, visual perception, balance, and the processing of auditory information. Fortunately retained reflexive activity, which is indicative of poor sensory motor development, can be detected at an early stage. As a child grows, expectation of more mature movements increases proportionally. Movement becomes symbolic of life and existence. Movement is the sole manner of physical expression and intelligence. Similar to building blocks, there are graduated levels of motor development and motor planning. Children should be exposed to specific patterns at a given stage of development. If a child misses a critical developmental stage, if they lack the link from one pattern to the next, they will show evidence of problematic motor performance.