The purpose of our initial research12 was to examine the effects of a specific movement programme on (a) the inhibition of one primary-reflex (the ATNR), and (b) the educational performance of a clearly defined group of children (aged 8-11 years) with reading difficulties and a persistent ATNR, using a randomised, individually matched, double-blind, controlled design.
After extensive preliminary work, four movements were selected to make up the ‘experimental movement programme’ based on the tonic labyrinthine reflex, the Moro reflex, the ATNR and the symmetrical tonic neck reflex. One of the movements was developed from the ‘fetal posture’ movement of Raymond Dart13 and another from the ‘fetal movement’ used at the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, Chester. The other two movements were developed by the writer.
