PeterPan: "If you can find a psychiatrist (ie. MD) who does genetics and more detailed testing for mitochondrial disorders, etc. you may turn up something." Could you elaborate a bit on "mitochondrial disorders"? A bit of search I did on it didn't point to anything I see in my son. Is there a link you can share? Thanks!

Petar Pan: thanks for your input! Yes, I too am hoping that the developmental optometrist and their Retained reflexes testing will bring some answers, and I will be soon starting the long process of getting us to a neuropsychologist as well, however long it takes

Storygirl: Yes, I will definitelly look into educational testing as well

kbutton: I am just now in the process of getting in touch with a developmental optometrist in our area. They do Retained reflexes testing as well, and I am thinking that retesting him by a different facility might be a good idea. As for APD, I had looked into an Audiologist in our area as well, and still have her on my list of things. I think we'll start with the Optometrist and go from there. Many thanks for your detailed responses, I really appreciate it!

Rosie_0801, SKL, kbutton: Thanks very much for your input and suggestions, I appreciate it. Rosie_0801: I never thought that bed-wetting might be an issue that chiropractor would deal with, so I'll definitely look into it. He never, either as very young, nor now, displayed the bulk of typical autistic traits, so I don't think there is ASD at play here. To me things look more like ADHD. kbutton: In all fairness, he is not hyperkinetic all the time, just sometimes, a few spells during the day, but I always notice it. I find it interesting that your child did duck and pigeon walk as an exercise to correct retained Moro - our OT uses duck and pigeon walk to test and re-test my son, and so far every time his pigeon walk has been fairly twisted, arms are very much affected by the position and movement of the feet. I would like to do some pigeon walking with him at home, but I fear that the next time he is tested by OT for Moro, he will perform well on test due to practice and not due to true integration of Moro, so that would be misleading and deceptive in our situation, possibly. Would that be the case, in your opinion? Metronome: we tried just clapping with metronome at 54 bpm for 2minutes daily, but he is frustrated and bored with it. Would just listening to metronome while doing Moro exercises without trying to follow the beat still be beneficial? I never noticed that he has any vision problems but I think I will actually look into developmental optometrists for him. What I forgot to mention in my OP is that he hardly checks any boxes for Visual Processing disorder according to Dianne Craft's book, but definitely checks a lot of boxes for Auditory processing disorder. But I sadly still haven't reached that spot - where I can start working on his auditory processing problems with her exercises. It is also interesting (to me, as I still don't really know a whole lot about retained reflexes, even though I am trying to get myself up to speed) that your child did bear walk for retained Moro. My son did bear walk for retained Spinal galant (as advised by OT). Would it be correct to say that an exercise can be beneficial for more than one retained reflex? I thought they are very rigidly assigned to very specific retained reflex. Would you maybe say that varying Moro exercises might be a good idea? As in introducing different ones not on OT's list for us? Or would that be counterproductive as he would not be focused on those four, specifically recommended by OT to do? And thanks for the links, I will definitely check them out.

Hi everyone. If someone can provide me with a bit of clarity on all these confusing and seemingly intertwined issues, I'd be really grateful. My son is 10 years old and has symptoms of retained primal reflexes and learning challenges. I hope it is OK if I try to organize this in number form, as it seems to be the only way to make it more legible: 1. Symptoms: anxiety, bed wetting, fidgeting, dysgraphia (no dyslexia - his reading is, according to 2 tests we did, between 2 and 6 years above the grade level), emotional immaturity, occasional rigid thinking patterns, is a bit of a control freak (which I suspect comes from the attempt to control his own anxiety), can't focus very well on academics although he is very bright (assessed as very bright not only by me, but by the occupational therapist as well), was somewhat uncoordinated as a toddler (couldn't toss or catch the ball but that seemingly resolved on it's own), poor memory for math facts and spelling facts, insomnia unless extremely tired, difficulty handling transitions (when younger, but this improved a lot, thankfully). (He is taking several dietary supplements that definitely help the issues to an extent - iron, fish oil, magnesium, zinc, L Theanine.) 2. After talking with OT about the symptoms, she decided to test him for Spinal galant and it came positive. He started doing snow angels (5 reps)and bear walk (7 steps)daily, on most days, on average 5 days a week. He would not agree to do more than that. He did this for about 7 weeks, was re-tested and it was determined that Galant is still present. At the same appointment, I wanted him tested also for: 1) Moro, 2) Asymmetrical tonic neck, 3) Symmetrical tonic neck and 4) Tonic Labyrinthine reflexes. Of these, OT determined he has retained: Moro, Asymmetrical, and Labyrinthine. Apparently he doesn't have the STNR retained. OT suggested he continues to do Galant exercises and add the 4 Moro exercises: Star (10 reps), Tuck and Extend (10 reps), Bridge (5 reps) and Prayer Pose (10 reps), 3 to 5 days per week. (As a side note: since he finds all the exercises boring, I allow him to listen to children's audio books while doing them; I don't know if this impedes his progress as his mind isn't solely focused on the movements he makes, but it is impossible to get him to do these exercises without this type of a trade-off). He was retested for Galant and Moro after about 10 weeks and both were still present. We (OT and I) agreed that we will temporarily drop Gallant exercises and focus on Moro. He was retested for Moro after about 9 weeks and it is still present. We are continuing to do Moro exercises, but I admit being discouraged by no progress, and seemingly no improvement for either Moro (doing exercises for 5 months as of now) or Galant (did exercises for 4 months). But, there is no point in moving onto exercising for the next retained primal reflex on the list until Moro is integrated, right? 3. I was researching dysgraphia resources and found Dianne Craft's program - Brain Integration Therapy - mid-line crossing exercises. I got her book and we started doing some of her exercises as well, as encouraged by OT: Writing 8s, Cross leg toe touch, Cross Crawl. I find it stressful and time consuming to be doing both OT and BIT. What is more important to be doing now: OT exercises for retained reflexes or Dianne crafts exercises for integration of left and right brain hemispheres and for dysgraphia? 4. I would prefer to focus only on either integrating Moro, and doing academics of course, or Diane Craft's program (and academics) because to fit both Retained reflex exercises and Dianne Craft's program as well is very difficult for us: he needs to be constantly supervised while doing anything, is somewhat dragging his feet/is hard to persuade to start, finds it boring, so to struggle with either exercises for one retained primal reflex plus with academics OR Craft program plus academics is more than enough to fill my day. Having to do both makes me very anxious and depressed, as I seem to constantly be failing at fulfilling the plan and program for the day. Yet, I also fear that day by day he is getting older and the window of opportunity to deal successfully with both retained reflexes and brain integration is getting smaller, so I am scared of even temporarily dropping the few Dianne Craft exercises that we do manage to do somewhat regularly. However I am also afraid that we are doing everything we are currently doing in a superficial and ineffective way because we have too much on our plate. 5. So my questions are, if anyone has any suggestions: 1) How long does it take to integrate Moro (if any estimation can be made)? 2) Should we do both OT exercises for retained reflexes and Dianne Craft Brain Integration Program (mid-line crossing exercises)? 3) If not both at the same time, which one to do first - OT for retained reflexes or BIT? 4) Is there anything else that can help any of his symptoms that I listed above? Supplements help noticeably, but not fully; I also want to believe that the exercises that he has been doing for the last 6 months are helping some too. He is definitely calmer, more relaxed, less rigid in his thinking, more cooperative and more academically successful than before, all of which I am very happy about. However, the issues persist. The lack of focus, memory lapses and hyperkinesia...and everything else...albeit in lesser intensity, thankfully. Any advice would be welcome and thanks to anyone who got through this amount of text!