Pediatric Assessment
Don't wait to have your baby assessed!
It is never too early for your baby's functional neurodevelopmental assessment with Dr. Paat. The focus is on neuromotor development and stimulation if needed, she does not replace your baby's regular pediatrician visits, but will work with them. Dr. Paat can evaluate and provide specific developmental exercises, tools and advice to provide your baby the best opportunity for ideal neurodevelopment, especially in during the first year of life.
She will perform a non-invasive evaluation for primitive reflexes, reflexes that are essential for optimal neurological development, they begin firing within the womb and continue throughout the first year of life. They are repetitive or reproducible movements, which are involuntary or automatic responses to stimuli in our environment. They are essential for the stimulation of motor pathways and the maturity of the the central nervous system. They are triggered by our body's sensory response to our environments, our senses (movement, touch, sound, taste, light) are stimulated, triggering a reflexive reaction. This automated body response to the environment, is not within our control, the reflexive output is always the same for each specific reflex fired. They all have their own purpose, some of them include facilitating head control, muscle tone, sensory integration and overall neurological development.
Primitive reflexes are essential for growth and development for numerous reasons, they protect a developing fetus, aid in the delivery process, stimulate that first big breath of life, they cue alarm/danger, facilitate suckling response, lay down the pathways to transition to crawling and so much more, all of which trigger life long postural reflexes, cerebellar and cortical development. Ideally these reflexes will be stimulated until they are no longer necessary for survival and become integrated, and can therefore not be stimulated with typical sensory input. The brain begins to respond to its environment intentionally rather than reactively. The primitive reflexive movements have fulfilled their developmental duty, and are not elicited upon examination and a more mature brain is now able to control movements, and actions become voluntary and thoughtful.
When these primitive reflexes do not become integrated or inhibited as intended, it can be an indication of an immature central nervous system. The presence of the ongoing elicitation of primitive reflexes after the first year is not ideal, however some are specific indicators of pathological concerns, these would require further outside testing.
