Our Model

Brain Fit Academy is a center of excellence in New England, offering acceptance, hope and empowerment for whole brain living. Our mission is to partner with families, children of all ages, and adults on a journey towards integration and confidence. In our home-based model, participants find hope and innovative solutions to their everyday challenges empowering them to move forward with ease.

Reflex Integration

Parents are often the first people to recognize that their child may have a problem. Unless the symptoms are severe, their child’s difficulties can be overlooked and parents are told “he or she will grow out of it.”

While it is true that children may develop at different rates, there are many children who, look typical, but when assessed more closely, display evidence of a less developed nervous system. If these immaturities persist, these children are at risk of experiencing a range of learning, social and behavioral difficulties which can last a lifetime.

When a child is born, he leaves the safety of the womb and enters a world of unpredictable sensory stimulation. To survive, human beings are equipped with a set of primitive reflexes designed to allow for immediate response to their new environment. Primitive reflexes are automatic, stereotyped movement patterns, directed by the brain stem, or what we call, the “baby brain.” This is done without cortical involvement. These reflexes are essential for the baby’s survival for the first few weeks of life as well as providing the initial basic training for later, voluntary motor development (rolling, sitting, crawling). These reflexes should however, only have a limited lifespan. Within the first year, these movement patterns should be inhibited or controlled by higher centers in the brain, allowing for more sophisticated, voluntary movements to develop.

For various reasons, some children do not fully integrate these reflexes. This causes the nervous system to be locked into a “holding pattern” that prevents typical maturation. Depending on the degree of residual reflex activity and the immature organization of the neuro-pathways, one or more areas of functioning may be affected. These may include attention, posture, gross and fine motor skills, cognition and communication abilities. Some children will be diagnosed with a learning disability or attentional difficulties and will need to work very hard to accomplish tasks that their peers can do quite easily.

If primitive reflex activity is evident, a movement-based program, such as Brain Fit Academy, can facilitate the development and integration of these primitive movement patterns, allowing for more sophisticated development. Often times, balance and body awareness are first to improve, followed by increased confidence and improved handwriting, reading, listening and focus.