A Review of 'Reflexes, Movement, Learning & Behaviour' by Sally Goodard Blythe
I was turned on to this book by one of my mentors, Brett Winchester, when, during a recent lecture, he casually dropped the comment, “Goddard Blythe is a genius when it comes to primitive reflexes”. Coming from Brett, I jumped on Amazon, and the book arrived a few days later.
Here are my highlights;
Rosanne Kermoian and her colleagues conducted a study at Reed College in and found that many cognitive skills, such as object permanence and space perception, are learned during the creeping period - and not until then.
Locomotor experience: a facilitator of spatial cognitive development - PubMed
If the vestibular system is temporarily overwhelmed by excessive spinning, then for a few seconds afterward, vision will be blurred, and the entire visual world appears to be moving. In other words, we only become aware of functional problems with the vestibular system through symptomatic changes in other systems.
Early handling also leads to permanent sensitivity of the part of the brain that controls stress response, resulting in reduced levels of stress hormones. Studies of premature infants have shown a 45% increase in weight gain among children who are massaged for 15 minutes, three times a day.
There were many more takeaways from this book in terms of how I will put together primitive reflex inhibition and persistence, in particular when it comes to learning, reading, and personality profiles…which is quite interesting.
The other major area of interest for me was toward the back of the book, when Goddard Blythe gives the history of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, or INPP.
The overlaps between the institute’s ideation and formation were eerily similar to those of the Prague School or Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, which has been spearheaded primarily by Prof. Pavel Kolar of the Czech Republic. Which did make me question who was sourcing whose material since the did sprout up around the same time. Although the idea of multiple discovery or simultaneous invention from the field of quantum physics proposes how things like this happen all the time.
Overall, it’s a great book for those looking to understand the complexity of the human nervous system. Give it a read.
